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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 



i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, £ 



OUR 



GABKISONS IN THE WEST 



SKETCHES IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 



FRANCIS DUNCAN, M.A., 

FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY ; FELLOW OF THE KOTAL GEOGKAFHICAL 

SOCIETY ; MEMBER OF COLONIES' COMMITTEE, SOCIETY OF AETS ; 

D.C.L. KING'S COLLEGE, N.S. ; 

LIEUTENANT, KOYAL ARTILLERY. 




LONDON : 
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 

1864. 



[The right of Translation reserved-' 



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^ 



^\ 






MAJOR A. BRENDON, 

AND 

THE OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN 

OP 

NO. 5 BATTERY, 7TH BRIGADE, ROYAL ARTILLERY, 

THE FOLLOWING SKETCHES 

ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR, 



PREFACE. 



Confined to his room for a few weeks by the 
effects of an accident, the author of the following 
pages undertook the task of committing to paper 
some reminiscences of six years' service in our Ame- 
rican colonies. At a time when we have compara- 
tively so large a force in Canada and our other pro- 
vinces, he hoped that many English readers would 
have an unusual interest in our Garrisons in the 
West. He would fain trust, also, that to the general 
reader his few chapters on some of our finest colonies 
may prove not destitute of information, nor devoid 
of interest. 

Written somewhat hurriedly, and yet at the same 
time influenced by the fits and starts which are 
visible in the employments of every sick or convales- 
cent subject, the reader may possibly find much 
irregularity in the style, and incompleteness in de- 



vi PREFACE. 

scription. In such a case, the author can merely 
throw himself on the generous indulgence of a 
public, never severe on an inexperienced author or a 
traveller who speaks truly, even though lamely, of 
the scenes he has studied or taken part in. 



36, Half Moon-street^ 
Piccadilly. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

On the Sea . . . . . .1 

CHAPTER II. 

Halifax, Nova Scotia . . . . 16 

CHAPTER III. 

Comic Adventures in the Woods . . .45 

CHAPTER IV. 
Sport in Earnest . . . . . . 59 

CHAPTER V. 

Nova Scotia . . . . . .79 

CHAPTER VI. 

In the Tracks of Longfellow . . . 104 

CHAPTER VII. 
New Brunswick ...... 117 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Halifax to Montreal . . . . 140 

CHAPTER IX. 
Through the Thousand Isles to Kingston . .171 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER X. 
A short Chapter, referring more especially to To- 
ronto and Hamilton, but with a Word or Two on the 
Lakes . . . . . . . 194 

CHAPTER XL 

Niagara . . . . . . .204 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Overland March to Canada in the Winter 
1861-62 219 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The March continued, and Quebec . . . . 237 

CHAPTER XIV. 

"Our Miserable Little Island" . . . 251 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Trade and Education of our North American 
Colonies ...... 272 

CHAPTER XVI. 

On the Defences of Canada . . . . 294 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Homeward Bound, with a Look at our last Garrison 
in the West . . . . . 307 



1 



OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST, 



CHAPTEE I. 

OX THE SEA. 

a sedibus unis 

Una Eur usque notusque ruunt, creberque procellis 
Africus. Virgil. 

To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, 
And blown with restless violence round about 
The pendent world. 

Mt asure for Measure , 

To the rather hackneyed notes of " Cheer, boys, 
cheer," and the pathetic strains of " Mary of Argyle,'* 
some four hundred of us marched off Woolwich 
parade to embark on board the screw steam-ship 
Lebanon, for service in Canada, Nova Scotia, and 
Brunswick. 

Being my first round of foreign service, I have not 
forgotten the many little annoyances which, though 
novel then and striking, I know now, from seven 
years* experience, are generally consequent on the 
embarkation of troops, and tend to make the con- 
fusion worse confounded. The muddy river, the 

B 



2 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

pouring rain, the dark and cheerless sky, darkened 
still more by the clouds of smoke from the many- 
roofed arsenal, had rather a depressing effect on us ; 
while excited staff-officers giving contradictory orders 
tended somewhat to irritate. 

By the way, in these days of model staff colleges 
and teasing examinations, I wish, the Board of Exa- 
miners would insist on every candidate for an appoint- 
ment solving the following problem : " Given, a body 
of men and a troop-ship, to leave them alone." When 
a grateful country recognises my services by making 
me commander-in-chief, my first general order shall 
be that on all occasions of embarkation and disem- 
barkation of troops, every staff-officer in the garrison, 
or other useless and irritating agent, shall be confined 

O O 7 

to his respective office, with an abundant supply of 
stationery to vent his inordinate zeal upon, but in no 
way to be allowed communication with the troops in 
question. I remember a horrible medley of baggage 
lying about, the fragile articles, as a rule, lying under 
such airy nothings as the battery arm-chests, or those 
huge and marvellous packages, which, wrapped in 
ancient bedding, and surmounted by a washing-tub, 
represent in every climate the goods and chattels of 
the British married soldier. But a more horrible 
medley in the eyes of the sailors, was to be found in 
the living part of their cargo — in us, the four hundred ; 
inasmuch as our excessive patriotism would not allow 
us to stow ourselves away until our native land should 
fade from our vision, or symptoms of maladie du mer 
should make us fade from theirs beneath the hatch- 
ways. Soldiers on board ship are for the first week a 
great nuisance; but for the first twenty-four hours 



ON THE SEA. 6 

they are simply insufferable. Were I requested to 
add another trial to the catalogue of the patient 
patriarch's, I should suggest giving him the command 
of a crowded transport, with a large proportion of 
soldiers' wives and children on board. The British 
soldier is so much in the habit of meeting a friend, 
and having a convivial glass with him the night 
before a journey, that his faculties are rather dense 
when the start actually comes, and he acquires in a 
high degree that unpleasant property of being in 
every one's way. Were not sailors a good-natured 
set of fellows, they would treat their awkward pas- 
sengers with indignation, instead of the amusing com- 
passion they generally display. 

At last came the moment of leaving the wharf, and 
such of us as have friends down to see us off com- 
mence a furious hand-shaking, and the men commence 
of course to cheer, just as. they would if we were 
under orders to form part of the next sacrifice of the 
amiable King of Dahomey, for there is generally 
more noise than reason in the Briton's cheer; and 
then came the slow steaming past the muddy wharves, 
and by-and-by came reaction. As excitement is gre- 
garious in its nature, so is the reaction solitary and of 
a selfish tendency. And in our case this appeared by 
our dropping off noiselessly to secure good berths, and 
the best paraphernalia we could find. Alas ! now for 
the junior subalterns ! happy are they if they can get 
any place to lie down on, or a single article of furni- 
ture. Verily, in the army the greatest mistake a 
man can make is to be a junior ! 

Fortunately, we dined in smooth water ; and the 
hysterical mirth during dinner, with the prevailing 
b2 



4 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

infidel notions about sea-sickness, must have intensely 
gratified the attendant stewards, and the older hands 
among ourselves. Gradually, however, as we round 
the shores of Kent, and steal towards clear, picturesque 
old Dover, the public commence to recant their hasty 
notions, and to make dreary inquiries as to the proper 
remedies to be employed in case one should be taken 
worse ; nor is it long before, one by one, we leave the 
deck, and enter upon a course of anguish which, with 
very few exceptions, lasted for many days. 

Yet again, through the dim vistas of memory, 
after a gap of eight or nine hours which is too hor- 
rible to contemplate, I see my own sick and weary 
form clinging with affectionate tenacity to the vessel's 
bulwarks, as she ploughed through a chopping sea 
with a gale of wind in our teeth. The cold, grey 
dawn is creeping under the friendly shroud of dark- 
ness, which had hid the agonies of the earlier part of 
my watch from public gaze. 

Yes, reader, that unhappy figure is, by a prepos- 
terous and laughable idea, dignified in orders by the 
title of officer of the watch ! The only object for 
four long hours which I contemplated, was the hateful 
sea by the ship's side (not Tennyson's lotus-eaters 
themselves could have hated it more), and the only 
exercise of which I seemed capable was a species of 
convulsive leap-frog, which though always attempting, 
I could never wholly accomplish. The vessel might 
have been boarded, sunk, set on fire, without the fact 
crossing my engrossed faculties ; and as far as assist- 
ing — as by a grim joke of the Admiralty the military 
watch is supposed to do — in the management of the 
ship, I was about as capable as Mr. Bright is of com- 



OX THE SEA. 

manding an iron-dad. I was outraged by a heartless 
old soldier, who had come to look on a journey of 
three or four thousand miles much in the light of a 
morning parade, and whose internal arrangements 
would not have been disturbed by a hurricane. 
Coming slowly towards me from amidships, in a voice 
as soothing as forty years' strong tobacco and un- 
limited spirits and water would admit of, he endea- 
voured to console me by saying it would be " as good 
as guineas to me." Kindly meant it was, no doubt, 
but in the then state of my feelings I could have 
slain him where he stood, and was only interrupted in 
the midst of a look calculated to scorch and wither 
him, by a sudden paroxysm of the very malady he 
had ventured to praise. The British subaltern is no 
Croesus, but rather than have that agony again, give 
me — not guineas, but the parish ! 

I remember well that was the dawn of a Sunday, 
and the most appalling thing I could ever devise to 
an enemy of weak stomach, would be a Sunday in 
the Channel with a screw too powerful for the vessel, 
a heavy sea, and a gale of wind. For on board ship 
the first day of the week seems selected by the cook 
as an occasion on which he may run riot with all the 
contents of his larder, which are either powerful in 
odour or greasy in constitution. Truly our cook was 
no exception ; and trying was the hour of dinner to 
such as myself, prostrate in our berths, with its un- 
pleasant appeals to our nostrils, and the still more 
awful appeals of the steward, who, as every course 
appeared, heaped a plate of the greasiest substances, 
and, opening my cabin door, implored me to take some, 
with the barefaced assurance that it would do me 



b OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

good. Of the two proceedings, I should have sooner 
walked out of my port-hole into the sea. 

I have been informed that there was divine service 
performed on deck that day. The Queen's Regula- 
tions — that cheerful volume — are very strong on the 
subject, and insist rigidly on the presence of every 
one on board. Had we all been present on this occa- 
sion, and the compiler of that delightful volume been 
suddenly introduced among us, I feel confident that 
the passage on that subject would have been speedily 
expunged. Neither event took place, however, and I 
have been incredulous on the subject of that service 
ever since. The brother-officer who was doubled up 
with me was rash enough to attempt the performance, 
but he speedily returned, and seemed reluctant to 
enter into conversation upon the matter. He was 
very ill during the rest of the voyage. 

The passage from the ^Eneid which I have placed 
at the head of this chapter, applies most happily to 
our miserable voyage. All the winds that old^-EoIus 
has the management of, seemed, as in the above case, 
to have been let loose upon us with one exception. In 
the Virgilian case, Boreas is not mentioned, therefore, 
I presume, that was a fair wind, and was kept in the 
proprietor's cave ; now, I am not much of a sailor, 
but still I suppose an east wind would have suited us, 
and as we had nothing in the form of anything suit- 
able, I imagine we had no east wind. As a matter of 
course, we had the roughest passage on record, but as 
I have crossed the Atlantic four times now, and every 
time have heard the same remark from the nautical 
authorities, I do not attach much importance to that 
fact. I crossed in the gale when the Royal Charier 



ON THE SEA. 7 

went down, and I see before me now the grave face 
of the pilot who came on board at Holyhead, and 
pointed out to us the topmasts of that unhappy vessel 
still showing above the boiling surf, where but six- 
and-thirty hours before so many brave and hoping 
hearts ceased for evermore to beat. I have crossed 
one wild October, when all round us, as we lay in the 
Downs with both anchors out, vessels were dragging, 
and sinking, and drifting on shore, and strong men 
were dying in the surging waters. I have been on 
board sailing vessels and steamers alike in the wild 
Atlantic ; I have been taken aback in the former, and 
had the screw fouled in the latter ; I have scudded 
along almost under bare poles, lain to in a howling 
storm, and crept along the coasts of Newfoundland 
in a fog so thick that you could not see the bows from 
the quarter-deck ; and my candid opinion is this, that 
while on shore all is vanity and vexation of spirit, at 
sea all is in addition vanity and vexation of body ! I 
cannot understand any one going to the sea as a pro- 
fession ; I am confident that, if instead of capturing 
young innocents at the tender age of midshipmen and 
merchant apprentices, the age of discretion were 
waited for, we would find some difficulty hi manning 
our vessels. I hate the sea myself, even the few 
hours' agony between England and France ; and I 
consider the miserable impostor who put to music 
those idiotic sentiments about his bark being his bride, 
and his preferring a wet sheet, and a flowing sea, &c, 
should be publicly whipped and privately admonished. 
There was a monotony of anguish about the first 
seven days of my voyage, on the occasion referred to 
in the outset of this chapter, which may account for 



OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the weak hold its details have on my memory. For 

1 am sure that, to speak metaphysically, our faculties 
retain hold of joyful or pleasant impressions longer 
and more vividly than of those which are sorrowful ; 
so to speak, our thinking soul is calculated for a 
happy, not a miserable existence. But after that 
time, as one's stamina return, as — many opinions to 
the contrary, notwithstanding — I believe they in- 
variably do, it is interesting to watch the various 
stages of physical improvement. First, one can bear 
with less horror the menu of the dinner which the 
relentless steward rehearses daily. Secondly, one 
ventures to converse with one's companions on the 
subject of future dinners on shore. And here a sin- 
gular phase occurs. 

The fitful appetite commences in a morbid manner 
to fancv the wildest and most incongruous articles of 
food. I remember well, after a debate of three clays, 
that my immediate companion and myself selected as 
the bonne bouche of our first dinner on shore, codfish 
and mulled port. Now I am not aware that I have 
any natural or startling affection or predilection for 
these luxuries ; I infinitely prefer soles to codfish, and, 
on the whole, am disposed to regard mulled port as a 
pleasing bat deadly poison. But from inscrutable 
causes, perhaps because fresh fish and mulled wine 
were absent from the bill of fare whose daily recapi- 
tulation prostrated us, these dishes did secure in our 
hearts a position which whitebait or red mullet, 
chickens and champagne, never could have ap- 
proached. Through the weary hours of more than 
one restless night, these came before us with a garb 
more alluring than ever beguiled us before or since. 



OX THE SEA. 9 

But the hour soon came when we could face food 
with confidence, even on the tossing ship. And on 
the tracks of this golden time speedily followed in 
close company the welcome forms of relish, desire, and 
positive hunger. Then was it, in the times of these 
pleasing transformations, that the steward ceased to be 
a mocking demon, and was adored as a dear friend. 
Pleasant be thy slumbers, O pliant Currie, if still on 
the unsteady deck you seek for rest after the day's 
toil ! Never shall thy harmless fictions be forgotten, 
as morning after morning, long after the shores of 
England had disappeared, thy hand placed before our 
eager lips coffee which thou fondly called Mocha, and 
hot rolls which, with grave face and poetic license, 
thou assured us were warm London-made luxuries. 
Ah ! pleasing even to be deceived was it in those days 
of returning appetite. What mattered it that a few 
minutes before these very rolls had been kneaded by 
rough hands that worked by the galley fire? what 
matter that the coffee knew more of beans and chicory 
than the balmy air of Mocha % 

So rolled the time away — eating and drinking, 
sleeping and beating up and down the quarter-deck, 
playing whist by day and by night, boring one another 
with hackneyed stories, and becoming involuntarily 
acquainted with one another's weak points; for no- 
where sooner than at sea does one's real character 
develop itself; and in all respects did we have as 
stupid a passage as usual. Very seldom had we any 
external excitement from passing vessels, nor did we 
make any land before Halifax. Indeed, with two 
exceptions, I never in any of my journeys across the 
Atlantic found much to excite or interest beyond our 



10 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

own little world. One of these occasions was on a 
dull, stormy day — a Queen's birthday — when I was 
on hoard a sailing vessel taken up for transport of 
troops. We had been endeavouring at dinner, by 
means of good cheer and the flowing bowl, to keep 
up our loyalty to the proper pitch in spite of the de- 
pressing influence of the weather, and had adjourned 
to the deck to attempt a royal salute. This was 
managed by means of an unhappy and debauched- 
looking carronacle which we had discovered on board, 
and which we fired, in the absence of tubes or port- 
fires, by relays of hot pokers from the galley. This 
method of serving ordnance, chiefly because it is not 
to be found in the manual of artillery exercises, found 
great favour with the gunners ; and we were in the 
midst of rather a boisterous display of loyalty, when 
one of our number, more keen-sighted than the 
rest, detected on the horizon an object which he 
imagined was a wreck. Of course, being a lands- 
man, he was pooh-poohed by the ship's company ; but 
we set upon the captain and badgered him into alter- 
ing our course, and bearing down on the suspicious 
object. As we approached, all doubt was cleared away 
— a wreck it was, with the topmasts broken short off, 
bowsprit gone, no boats left, and the sea breaking 
over it as it rolled heavily to every wave. We passed 
within a few yards of her, and shouted ; but there 
was no answer — not even a doc- seemed to be on board. 
No boat could have got alongside in the sea that was 
running ; so, reluctantly, we had to bear away, and as 
we passed under her stern, there we saw shining out 
in large gilt letters her name — and of all names on 
that day of the year — The Old England. She was 



ON THE SEA. 11 

timber-laden, and not likely to sink; but often since 
then one thinks with sadness of that tossing hull, with 
the wind howling through the damaged rigging, and 
the waves beating on her deserted deck, as, for aught 
I know, they do to this clay. 

On board the same ship, when we came to the 
banks of Newfoundland, we were becalmed for nearly 
a couple of days. Not one of those calms like the 
Ancient Mariner's, when the vessel becomes 

Like to a painted ship 
Upon a painted ocean, 

but a calm after a gale of wind, with a sullen swell 
on the waters ; and the dull green waves crawling 
round the ship's sides, reminding one of Tennyson's 
lines in u Vivien :" 

As on a dull day in an ocean cave, 

The blind wave feeling round his long sea-hall 

In silence. 

There are few positions more uncomfortable than a 
passenger's on board a sailing ship in such a calm. 
Every timber in the vessel creaks abominably ; the 
sails put up to invite the breeze flap with loud noise 
against the masts; the articles in the cabins roll about 
more almost than in a storm, for then the sails steady 
the vessel; and at table you find yourself and your 
vis-a-vis performing a see-saw more ludicrous than com- 
fortable. On the present occasion we were becalmed 
among a number of fishing vessels, which, in the 
season, are anchored amid the banks, and are relieved 
of their fishy contents periodically by steamers sent 
with food, &c, in exchange. The fishing is entirely 
carried on with lines, and the fish caught are chiefly 
cod and halibut ; this latter being a gigantic species of 



12 OUR GARRISONS IX THE TTEST. 

turbot, reaching as far as two hundred pounds weight. 
To pass away the time, several of us volunteered to 
accompany the second mate to the nearest of these 
vessels, and procure some fresh fish in exchange for 
beef and other luxuries which would probably prove 
acceptable to the fishermen. On arriving at the 
vessel, we found that in the swell running we should 
find some difficulty in getting on board, and require 
some ingenuity to prevent our boat from being 
knocked to pieces against the side ; for it would at 
one moment rise above the deck, and at the next 
descend nearly to a line with the keel. However, 
watching his opportunity, the mate made a jump and 
succeeded in getting on board, and, prompted by 
curiosity, I ventured to do the same, assisted by a hand 
from the mate to prevent my f ailing on the deck, which 
was slippery with fish scales and other abominations. 
Once on board, we found no difficulty in making a 
most liberal bargain, and filled our boat with about 
fifty fine cod, and an enormous halibut. This last 
gentleman we took more to show such of our friends 
on the transport as had never seen one before ; for 
being over a hundred-weight, it was rather coarse for 
eating. By this time we commenced to think of re- 
training ; but never was there a more decided case of 
" revocare gradus, hie labor, hoc opus est." For it is 
one thing to leap from a small oscillating body to a 
large and comparatively steady one, and quite another 
to reverse the operation. The mate, accustomed from 
boyhood to mast-heads, &c, did succeed with some 
difficulty ; but I began to think that I should have to 
remain behind and exchange my sword for a cod-line. 
However, by placing myself on the shrouds, and keep- 



ON THE SEA. 13 

irig my eye on the violent movements of the boat 
below me, I prepared to drop at the moment when the 
fall would be least. A moment's hesitation, or some- 
thing of the sort, unfortunately delayed me, and just 
as I let go, down with a heavy surge went the boat 
fully twenty feet below me. Happily with one hand 
I caught a hanging rope in a manner worthy of 
Leotard or Olmar, and hung there till the boat rose 
asjain on the next wave. This was the most danger- 
ous time, for had the boat risen in exactly the same 
spot as before I must have been crushed between it 
and the ship's side, and the English army would have 
been robbed of a distinguished ornament. Fortu- 
nately, Fate was propitious, and our country not des- 
tined to lose her future Wellington, for the boat rose 
a foot or two from the ship, and I was picked off like 
a barnacle from the side by her crew, with no other 
damage than a coating on my unmentionables of a 
nauseous compound of tar and fish entrails. The 
open mouths and eyes of the troops on our return, 
when the halibut was raised by a tackle on board, 
atoned for my mishap ; and a cutlet of the same, 
taken off near the tail and dressed with claret sauce, 
more than compensated for our troubles. 

We got a clear perception of the sudden way in 
which fogs come down on the Banks of Newfoundland, 
for having invited some of the men from the fishing 
vessel to come on board and get a couple of bottles of 
brandy — although we were only a couple of hundred 
yards from them — it was with great difficulty we 
persuaded them to leave their own ship, and so great 
a fever of anxiety were they in, when waiting along- 
side, that I am sure, had we not been very quick — 



14 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

that, much as they loved the " cratur," they would 
not have waited. They told us they had seen fogs 
come down so instantaneously, and so impervious, 
that had a boat been a hundred yards from the ship, 
it would probably have failed to get back. The acci- 
dents in these fogs are fearfully numerous : witness, 
but the other clay, that sad story of the Anglo-Saxon 
and her helpless crew ; and, not long before, the Hun- 
garian steamer of the same line. 

But to return to our first vovage, from which we 

t. CD ' 

have rather wandered. Our weather was miserable, 
as I have already remarked ; but in the days of re- 
turned health this did not so much matter, save as 
affording; greater or less amusement at dinner, in 

CD O 

watching the reanimated joints, or the restless fluids 
that seemed always seeking a level, which they never 
found. Sometimes three or four days without any- 
thing to break the dull grey circle of heaving waters 
round, save the seagulls in our wake, which never 
left us the whole voyage. Sometimes we would see 
on the horizon some ship ploughing its solitary way, 
and with childish excitement would hasten to com- 
municate with it. At last, one day a whisper went 
through the ship that we were near the Banks of New- 
foundland, and to our greedy ears the announcement 
was made by our servants at early morn, with a re- 
servation on their parts that they were not yet visible. 
Poor fellows ! little did they dream of banks that were 
not green and willow-covered, but lay fathoms down, 
vast, silent, and treacherous. From this moment, how- 
ever, the aspect of all on board changed. We com- 
menced to gather our traps together, and never used 
our brushes without returning them to their travelling- 



OX THE SEA. 15 

3, lest we should have suddenly to land. We com- 
menced to criticise our victuals with severity, to bully 
Carrie, and to make disparaging remarks on the beer. 
For two days now the decks forward were covered 
with belts bleaching under a new coat of pipeclay : 
and a steady moment in the ship's progress might 
have seen dozens of us rush, as if suicidally inclined, 
frantically to our razors. And then came the morn- 
ing which saw us steam up the grand harbour of 
Halifax, a noble specimen of nature's works in Ame- 
rica first to greet our eager eyes ; and never surely 
did Columbus examine more curiously the features of 
his newly-discovered, continent, than did we those of 
that part of it where we were destined for a time to 
reside. And now we forgot all our troubles and our 



ennui 



All the past 
Melts mistlike into this bright hour ; 

And all the rich to come 
Eeels, as the golden autumn woodland reels, 
Athwart the smoke of burning weeds. 

Teszswson. 



16 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 



CHAPTER II. 



Scribe tui gregis hunc, et fortem crede bonuinque. 

Horace. 

Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, is a city of the 
highest importance to England, both in her capacity 
of a great commercial country, and as a naval power. 
Even apart from the history of Halifax during the 
last fifty years, its geographical position and the mag- 
nificence of its harbour are sufficient evidence of 
this. The former speaks for itself; but for the 
benefit of those who have never themselves seen it, 
I may be pardoned for a brief description of the 
latter. There are two entrances to the harbour, 
caused by the existence at its mouth of a large and 
beautiful island, called McXab's Island. Of these 
two, the western entrance is the one always used, 
except by vessels of a very small draught of water, 
and is protected on the west by high, steep rocks, 
surmounted by a fort called York Redoubt, and on 
the east by batteries now building on the island we 
have named, and by a tower on a narrow neck of 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 17 

land, which, although used as a lighthouse, is also 
armed, and is known as Sherbrooke Tower. A vessel 
entering the harbour, finds, on the western side imme- 
diately on passing York Redoubt, a branch of the sea 
about two miles and a half long, known, on account of 
the direction in which it lies, as the north-west arm. 
This shall be more fully described hereafter. On the 
point of land formed by this arm and the main harbour, 
and called Point Pleasant, there are two heavily-armed 
batteries on the shore, a large martello tower, called the 
Prince of Wales's Tower, and another elevated battery, 
almost concealed by brushwood and small spruce-trees, 
which rejoices in the name of Fort Ogilvie. The 
harbour, which now opens out, has on the other side 
another battery with a stone tower, built, I believe, by 
the French, and also well armed ; while on the western 
side, a little higher up, in the city itself, there is yet 
another battery on the water's edge. Raising our 
eyes, we see surmounting the hill on which Halifax is 
built, the huge citadel, heavily armed, and command- 
ing not only the harbour, but the whole country 
round. These alone would seem sufficient defences 
for any harbour ; but as if nature destined for this one 
a great future, she has placed in the centre of the 
harbour, a mile or two north of McNab's Island, a 
smaller one, called George's Island, which is heavily 
armed, and on which there is also a barrack. Thus a 
fire from every point of the compass can be kept up 
on a vessel in any part of the harbour ; and should 
any one battery be captured, it would be made by the 
fire of the others rather too warm to retain. It is to 
the north of this island that vessels generally anchor ; 
and on the western shore of this part are situated our 

C 



18 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

dockyard and our ordnance wharves, as well as the 
most important commercial docks and piers. Beyond 
the dockyard the harbour gradually closes in, forming 
a passage called " The Narrows," but deep enough to 
float the largest vessels. And on passing through these 
straits, we come upon what is the most beautiful, as it 
is the most striking, characteristic of the harbour, a 
large lake, so to speak, of the sea, ten miles at least 
in length, and several miles across, deep enough and 
large enough to float the whole navies of Europe. It 
is called Bedford Basin, and as the poorness of the 
soil surrounding it has not tempted any one to in- 
fringe on the forest, except at one or two places on 
the south and west, the effect produced by the wide 
sheet of water fringed with a belt of forest whose 
trees grow to its very edge, is impressive, pleasing, 
and not to be forgotten. Tradition, or I should rather 
say history, says that a French fleet was sunk in this 
basin, in the old days of the wars across the Atlantic 
between France and England. Another more pleasing 
historical relic is to be found on the western side in the 
remains of what is called " The Prince's Lodge," the 
residence of her Majesty's father, the Duke of Kent, 
who many years ago resided in Nova Scotia as go- 
vernor. It will give my readers a good idea of the 
size of this land-locked harbour, when I say that the 
men-of-war go up there during the summer to prac- 
tise even with their heaviest guns. And while using 
this form of description, it will afford some notion of 
the commodious nature of the harbour itself, when I 
can state that the Great Eastern came up to the usual 
anchorage, and turned with ease among the shipping 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 19 



on leaving. But the time when Halifax harbour 
shows to greatest advantage is on a summer moon- 
light night, when, as I have seen, the entire English 
and French North -American squadrons are lying 
motionless, the lights shining brightly in their rigging, 
and their mighty shadows darkening the silvery sur- 
face of the unrippled water. On a night such as this, 
I happened to be coming on shore from one of our 
vessels, and while the silence was unbroken save by 
the noise of our oars, and the water like a mirror save 
in our own phosphorescent wake, I cannot describe 
the feeling of power that seemed to me to lie in those 
silent and motionless monsters. In addition to the 
flagship, the Nile, and the St. George, with Prince 
Alfred on board, two noble specimens of our old 
three-deckers, we saw, within a few yards of one 
another, the Mersey, the Ariadne, the Immortalitt, 
and other of our finest frigates of that class, with 
some half-score of smaller craft, including, I re- 
member, the Rinaldo, afterwards famous as the vessel 
which received Messrs. Mason and Slidell from the 
hands of those truckling bullies in the States. I heard 
the captain of one of our frigates say that evening, 
that it would be a good thing for England if her 
harbour of Halifax could be exchanged with Spit- 
head. 

In enumerating the defences of the harbour, I 
omitted two, which, although silent, would play no 
mean part against an invading fleet. These are — 
first, a system of signalling from the outposts to the 
citadel, by which notice can be given of any approach- 
ing vessel, when it is yet thirty or forty miles off. 
c 2 



20 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

This is done by a system of ball-hoisting, by which 
an island called Samborough reports to York Redoubt, 
and this latter communicates with the citadel. 

The other means of defence to which I allude is 
a certain intricacy of navigation at the entrance of 
the harbour, owing to some shoals ; one in particular 
round Point Pleasant, which renders pilotage neces- 
sary, — a necessity, I presume, which favours the 
possessors more than an invader. 

So much — at least for the present — concerning the 
harbour. Now for a word about the good city itself. 

To begin a la mode. Halifax is a city of some 
thirty thousand inhabitants, with a large movable 
population in the crews of the men-of-war, which 
spend about seven months of the twelve here, the re- 
maining five being devoted to cruising among the 
West India Islands. Its trade, like its architecture, is 
somewhat of the composite order, as much of it con- 
sists in supplying the wants of a garrison never less 
than two thousand men, and a fleet whose proportions 
have been already hinted at. But, on the whole, we 
award the honour of being the chief item of commerce 
to fish, the trade in which is really very extensive. 
It is confined chiefly to salt cod, herring, and mackerel, 
the latter of which is put in barrels, and numbered 
according to quality and size ; and the West Indies 
are the chief purchasers, now that the Southern States 
are blockaded. In return for fish, sugar, molasses, 
and fruit come to Halifax. 

The city is built on the side of a hill, whose summit 
is crowned by the citadel. A great proportion of the 
houses are built of wood, painted white ; but under 
certain new regulations, which enforce the use of 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 21 

brick or stone in all future buildings, there is little 
doubt that in this respect the appearance of the 
town will speedily undergo a change. Even already 
two of the chief streets, which were within the last 
two or three years severely injured by fire, have been 
rebuilt in the stronger material, with, a taste and al- 
most a magnificence which one seldom meets in colo- 
nial towns, or even in provincial towns at home of 
similar size. The erection of several very handsome 
banks, a large club-house, and a building devoted to 
the law and other public offices, mark the commence- 
ment of an era of improvement in the city, which, if 
slow in coming, is now making rapid and earnest 
strides. There have been erected also by the Impe- 
rial Government new barracks at the north end of 
the town, which have been called the Wellington 
Barracks, and for their comfort and commodious 
dimensions, as well as their imposing appearance, are 
not often surpassed by the works of the Royal En- 
gineers. 

But while congratulating oneself on the rapid im- 
provements in such matters, and on the substitution 
of stone for wood, it would be unfair to the inhabit- 
ants to leave it to be imagined that this substitution 
was thrust on them by force of circumstances alone — 
no other power having been able to overcome their 
inertia. So far is this from being the case, that many 
of the most experienced citizens, even now, while 
bowing to the new law, maintain that, for comfort to 
the inhabitants of a house in an American climate, 
wood is far superior to stone, being warmer in winter 
and more agreeable in summer. And certainly, in 
point of appearance, there is something very attractive 



29 OCK GAEKIS- 

in a dwelling-house, newly painted white, with green 
shutters attached externally. And if the anceritv of 

may be interpreted 
is not natural to suppose that a people, in other respects 
singularly prudent, would, in a district where stone 
is abundant. have persisted, unless for a good reason, 
in building houses of wood, so much more exj « 
to keep in repair, and which had to pay a much 
higher rate of insurance against fire. However, as 
in a civilised community, the safety of the manv 
must ever come before the safety, and. far more, the 
: :„: :~~. : ~..r i:. i~ ' ..-.-. .--.'_. : -_ :'-. T :-.-.—.-_•- — ."_ r..->: 
yield to stone, on account of the less risk in the 
latter of fire spreading ; and those citizens whose pre- 
judices are in favour of the former wfll have to do 
what we all have to do more or less in this world. — 
grin and bear it. 

There are many rea ; a garrison town or a 

seaport should be unpleasant as a residence to those 
who are neither soldiers nor sailors. The very name 
of Chatham or Woolwich is an abomination to any 
decent paterfamilias. But whether it is that the 
civilians outnumber the other part of the population 
in a sufficient degree also to drown the grosser evils 
consequent on the presence of a garrison or a fleet, or 
that there is some other reason to account for their 
absence, I cannot say, but of this I can speak with 
certainty, that for seclusion and the absence of insult, 
with at the same time a full amount of the social in- 
tercourse- which is nece- : the well-being of man, 
and to his happiness. I have never met a town in 
England or Scotland of its size to equal it. You may 
.if you choose, all the calm repose of even some 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 23 

sleepy cathedral town; or you may have the quiet 
little dissipations, which have the pleasure without the 
sting of excitement, on a larger scale ; or, finally 
— thanks, in a great measure, to the garrison and the 
fleet — you may have gaiety to a degree undreamt of 
in towns of the same size at home. But there is no 
compulsion in either case : you may be gay, if you 
wish ; and you may be quiet, if you wish. There is, 
too, in Halifax, a little vice-regal court — small indeed, 
just as the emoluments of the situation are small com- 
pared with the original court — and you have a General 
and an Admiral, all of which dignities imply a certain 
amount of stately excitement, and tend to produce a 
good tone in the society of the place. And as the 
capital of a province, even although a small one, you 
have your Judges, your Bishops, and during the ses- 
sion, you have your Ministers and Parliament assem- 
bled, all of whom, in their way, give that tone to the 
society of the place which professional men always do 
in a place devoted to trade. Nor would I imply by 
this any disparagement to trade — far from it; but 
there is unquestionably something in the language 
and manners of professional and of literary men 
which softens and refines, while at the same time it 
immeasurably elevates, the intercourse of a commu- 
nity. The population is more English in manners 
and ideas than any other I have met in America, and 
there is an absence of the rowdy element, which one 
appreciates all the more after visiting other Transat- 
lantic cities. The labouring classes are respectable, 
and, as a rule, well-to-do ; the trading part of the in- 
habitants are well-informed, civil, and honest ; and the 
professions are represented by men who have had an 



24 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

education far superior to most colonies and many dis- 
tricts of England, while they pursue their various 
avocations with an earnestness and singleness of 
purpose which I fain would believe is attributable to 
a far higher motive than mere love of gain. Xor is 
science without its votaries in this good city ; in all 
classes one stumbles upon some earnest student. 
There are societies for the promotion of natural and 
other sciences ; and although in their proceedings 
there may be a little too much formality, and not a 
little vapouring, yet then- purpose is as sincere as it is 
noble, and it is reasonable to suppose that there is a 
youth in societies, just as there is in individuals : and 
if youth has its ener£v, we all know it has a little 
bombast too, and not a little of what the " country 
parson'" would call " vealiness." 

For practical students of the various branches of 
natural science there are in the city several museum.-, 
as also the beghinino-s of a Botanical and Zoological 
Garden, the latter under the management of one 
Andrew Downes, whose heart is in his work, if ever 
man's was, and who has the liberality of spirit which 
all true lovers of nature have. But in a new country 
like Nova Scotia there is no lack of a field for the 
explorer of nature, and although every year reveals 
some fresh instance of its mineral wealth, there is 
room, as there is temptation, for the naturalist, and 
more especially the geologist, to prosecute his scientific 
inquiries with pleasure to himself, and practical benefit 
to his native country. 

Although there is an English University in the 
province, to which allusion will be made in its place, 
and also many sectarian colleges, there is in Halifax. 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 25 

itself an institution, called Dalhousie College, for 
all denominations, which, after rather a chequered 
existence, has been reopened lately, under fresh 
auspices, and with favourable chances of success. 

As in most cities of America, there is a Lunatic 
Asylum, very large to English eyes in proportion to 
the population of the province. There is also a large 
public hospital, a dispensary, and an abundance of 
charitable institutions, which speak well for the bene- 
volence of the inhabitants. 

But Halifax is not perfect. It has its evils, and it 
has its follies. And looking at it in a comic point of 
view, I should say that there is something outrage- 
ously ludicrous in its policemen. I do not refer merely 
to that peculiarity of their tribe, which they possess in 
an eminent degree, of being out of the way when 
wanted — that is a property of a policeman at which 
no rightly-constituted tax-payer would ever grumble 
— but what struck me as so ludicrous was their ex- 
treme age and decrepitude. Those seemed the qua- 
lities whose absence, in a candidate for the baton 
of a constable, could never be overlooked, and in 
gazing on a Halifax policeman one was reminded 
more of the venerable qualities of justice than of its 
power and majesty. I never had occasion to call 
for then assistance save once, and, on hunting up and 
down not more than seven streets, and waiting about 
half an hour at a corner, I was so fortunate as to 
secure one. I think he was the oldest-looking man I 
ever saw, and he was so overcome at being called on 
to act — a duty which, I presume, he never contem- 
plated on taking office — that I was afraid he would 
expire on the pavement. On being at length con- 



26 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

fronted with his intended victim, I never saw abject 
terror more perfectly personified than in this unhappy 
right arm of justice. Really, a culprit must have had 
a most powerful imagination to have detected any of 
the majesty of the law in this its representative. 

Another weakness in the population of this good city 
is their proneness to processions, which they gratify on 
every possible occasion. I have often wonderedwhether 
it acted as a sedative, or was calculated to produce 
an appetite for the dinner which generally followed ; 
and again I have marvelled whether in the act of 
marching in procession these good people had disco- 
vered a panacea for all mental emotions. For whether 
it was to celebrate a birth, a marriage, or a death, the 
feelings of the parties most concerned seemed to find 
vent in a procession. In joy or sorrow, on a feast- 
day or a fast, in display of loyalty, or in celebration 
of a saint's day, a procession seemed to occur to those 
interested as an appropriate line of conduct. And it 
was the constant and unremitting observation of these 
solemn rites that made the idea of their acting as a 
sedative occur to me : for I assure you the expression 
of the constituent atoms of these marching bands was 
precisely the same, whether they were in rear of a 
hearse, coming out of church, filing past the Prince of 
Wales, or marching to dinner. So much did this im- 
press me, that had I been of the medical profession, 
and had been called on to prescribe for a feverish 
patient, I should have felt very much disposed to say, 
not a take a pill," but u try a procession." 

One of the great evils of Halifax, if not the greatest, 
is one which an author hesitates to approach. It con- 
cerns their public press : and one is unwilling at first 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 27 

to pass censure on an organ which can make such un- 
pleasant retribution. But the very faults which I am 
about to accuse them of have been lamented by the 
best of their own journals ; and they are faults which, 
while lowering the public tone, recoil also on the heads 
of those who commit them. I refer to those two dis- 
tinguishing faults of the Yankee press, which have 
crept into our colonial journals since the institution of 
representative government — personality and political 
rancour. By giving way to these faults the press, 
whose power is so great and so searching, inflames the 
worst passions of the people, lowers in their eyes the 
men who rule them (and what man is so perfect as to 
defy censure), and nullifies even the best acts of a 
government. All this, too, independent of the evil 
that the use of personality by the press creates among 
individuals — sowing dissension, begetting suspicion, 
enmity, and strife. And the danger is, that just as the 
constant tasting of spirits produces the craving for 
them, so the soupcons of scandal or bitterness con- 
stantly recurring in the columns which the people con- 
sult for information, beget the relish and love for that 
very style, and unfit the mind for the calm perusal of 
that information, and of those sentiments which it 
should be the pride, as it is the duty, of the public 
press to afford. 

Now, after this back-hander, let me return to the 
more pleasing duty of description. 

There are three things which are useful for a man 
to know who is about to reside in a place, and pro- 
fitable for a man to study when acquainted with it, as 
affording sound criteria of the disposition of the 
people, and the merits of the place. These are the 



28 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

prevailing amusements, the markets, and the weather. 
In these three lie the chief history of a place. 

Now with regard to the amusements of Halifax, 
I do not mean to enter on the consideration of those 
which are found to exist wherever you meet young 
people, such as dancing. I shall write of those 
which are peculiar to the place, and of those which, 
though not peculiar to it, are not among the necessary 
amusements of youth, such as dancing. And I shall 
select for description, skating, sleighing, boating, and 
lobster-spearing. Hunting and fishing I shall describe 
in another chapter. 

The four I have selected are, in part, well known in 
other parts of America, and of course the first and 
third are familiar to my English readers. But the 
method is not the same everywhere, even across the 
Atlantic, and is totally different from anything in 
England. I shall, in describing them, write as if 
to one wholly uninitiated; so my more experienced 
reader must pardon the simplicity of my account. 

To commence, shortly, with skating. This amuse- 
ment, so familiar to all, is entered into heartily in 
Halifax by both sexes ; nor must we associate it with 
all the dreary concomitants of skating on the Serpen- 
tine. Xo ; you are to imagine a chain of lakes miles 
long, or a rink, which mysterious word I shall presently 
explain. To begin with the chain of lakes ; and if 
this method of description has no other merit, it has 
at all events the advantage of introducing information 
which might otherwise have been overlooked. 

Halifax is surrounded by lakes of all sizes and at 
all levels. These are frozen every winter many feet 
in thickness ; but the best, and perhaps the most pic- 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 29 

tnresque, are a chain of several, on the eastern si 
the harbour, to get at which you have to pass through 
the little suburban town of Dartmouth. On these, 
crowds used to meet of all ages and of both sexes, and 
when the ice was good, and not covered with snow, 
you cannot imagine a more lively picture. Groups in 
different attitudes, either flying ahead at a tremendous 
pace, or performing those mysterious evolutions, 
which, by a wild amount of credulity, a spectator is 
to imagine a quadrille ; health and colour in every 
cheek, and laughter in every voice ; here some skilled 
skater performing a pas seul of great intricacy ; and 
there that object, without which no skating picture is 
perfect, a beginner lying prostrate with heels well in 
the ah*, and perhaps the young woman on wiiom his 
affections are concentrated wheeling gaily round him 
with peals of laughter, and making the forlorn one 
wish the ice would open and swallow him ; on yonder 
bank that melancholy self-sacrificing object so familiar 
to the young, the elderly chaperone, with blue nose 
and. pinched cheek, compared with which the most 
self-mortifying widow leads a happy and dissipated 
life ; or in the distance some swift-going sleigh, with 
cozy bearskins, or bright-edged buffalo robes, spanking 
along to the tune of its own silvery bells ; while, if 
you are lucky, you may see in the picture an ice-boat 
darting before the wind on its flying runners. And 
the frame of this picture, not the bleak, naked trees 
that come with the winter at home, but the dense 
masses of green spruce-trees, standing out against 
the clear, cloudless sky, and rising over a white carpet 
of snow. Better this scene than the Serpentine on 
one of the few occasions in the year when it is frozen, 



30 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

when, instead of adding a zest to life by the amuse- 
ment of skating, you are confronted on every hand by 
such a gloomy memento mori as a Humane Society 
man with a drag in his hand, or a huge placard with 
the ghastly word " Dangerous ! " 

But skating in America is carried on also in a rink, 
or large building, floored, so to speak, with the most 
beautiful ice. This is managed by flooding it every 
evening after the day's skating, and as the frost has 
access to the building, next morning it is perfect, and 
with occasional sweeping during the day, will bear 
any amount of skating without spoiling. The ad- 
vantages of having the ice xuider cover are several : 
it renders the skaters independent of the weather, and, 
what is more important, it saves the ice from being 
covered with snow, which falls often for days at a 
time, or from being softened by the rays of the sun at 
noon, which, as the season advances, get very power- 
ful. In addition to these benefits, skating can be 
carried on to any hour, as the rink is always lit up at 
night, and makes a very pretty picture, whose charms 
are constantly heightened by the presence of a band 
— a recess for musicians beins; o-enerallv built in most 
rinks of any size. There are frequently little dressing- 
rooms, and a platform for the outsiders ; or those un- 
happy devotees to whom we have already alluded. 
When I first saw a rink, the thing that struck me most 
w T as not so much the grace of the ladies skating, al- 
though that is very great, but the beautiful and cun- 
ning way they fall. They never, so to speak, lose their 
heads like a man, who generally falls hideously, bring- 
ing his head in smart contact with the ice, and throw- 
ing his heels in the air ; the female performers come 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 31 

down gradually, and even gracefully, into a sitting 
position, gathering their garments round them care- 
fully as they fall ; and, like little stoics, never letting 
the smile leave their faces. This struck me as a great 
accomplishment. 

In Halifax, the rink is in a place with a tautologi- 
cal name, the Horticultural Gardens — originally, I 
believe, the Horticultural Society's Gardens — and, as 
in Quebec and Montreal, it is supported by subscrip- 
tions and shares. 

Now for a few practical words on sleighing. In 
Halifax the taste for decoration in sleighs is not car- 
ried to the extent that it is in New York, or most 
Canadian cities. In fact, I may say that, as a rule, 
the sleighs there are far from graceful. The primi- 
tive form is a sled — that is, two runners with a few 
planks across — and these are used for the conveyance 
of country produce and wood. An improvement on 
the sled by the substitution of lighter and more grace- 
ful materials, painted in some lively colour, is often 
used by gentlemen who have a penchant for singu- 
larity. A single sleigh is like the body of an old 
country gig placed on runners, and with a buffalo 
robe or bearskin usually hanging behind, a second 
being used as an apron. They have generally shafts 
merely for one horse ; but they may be used with a 
pole, and are frequently driven tandem. In Canada 
the shafts are mostly very much on one side, to 
enable two sleighs to pass on a narrow or single track ; 
but this is not the case in Nova Scotia. The various 
ways of decorating such a sleigh as this are the colour- 
ing of the body, or devices on it ; the alteration of the 
shape from the primitive box to some more graceful 



32 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

and lounging form, and the lining and edging of the 
skins or robes. The common skins in use are the 
bearskin, the buffalo robe, and a robe made of racoon 
skins with the tails all hanging in parallel rows. I 
have also seen cariboo skins used, and even those of 
foxes. The bells are worn in different ways on the 
horse. The larger sort of them are attached to the 
pad, but there are long bands with small bells at- 
tached, worn round the neck in front of the harness, 
between the fore-legs, like the lower part of a martin- 
gale, or like a surcingle, round the horse's body and 
outside the shafts. On account of the absence of noise 
by a sleigh on a road, the use of bells of some sort is 
compulsory. A double sleigh is like the former, 
except that it has two or more seats, is always drawn 
by a pair, and, for a reason presently to be mentioned, 
has the runners frequently divided into two parts, 
making altogether something resembling four large 
skates. The close sleigh is merely an ordinary close 
carriage taken off its wheels and placed upon runners. 
All cabs, and many private carriages, are built so as 
to admit of this change being carried out with ease. 

The two most unpleasant things in sleigh-riding — ■ 
indeed, the only alloys to the charms of this amuse- 
ment — are those arising from what are called "ca- 
haux," and slewing. The former are hollows in the 
road, caused by the drifting of the snow, and pro- 
ducing much the same sensation as one experiences in 
a boat during a swell. The sudden check to the sleigh 
on coming on one of these, is trying to the traces : and 
in a large sleigh with long runners there would be 
a danger of then- breaking in the middle ; for much 
the same reasons as those which made many imagine 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 33 

that the Great Eastern would break her back when 
raised fore and aft by two waves. For the purpose 
of obviating this risk, the runners, as I have already 
said, are, in long sleighs, frequently divided. Slewing 
happens when turning a corner, and particularly at 
the foot of a hill, the runners having a tendency to 
slide even sideways on the smooth, beaten surface of 
the road. When turning sharply, the original impetus 
tends to carry the sleigh straight on ; and as the fore 
part of the sleigh is put in the new direction by the 
shafts, the rear part swings heavily round, sometimes, 
in the case of a heavy sleigh, with sufficient force to 
turn the horses' heads in exactly the opposite of their 
original direction. 

Boating is carried on in Halifax to a considerable 
extent, and the annual regatta aids greatly in keeping 
the amusement alive. There are all sorts of rigs ; 
but as I am an indifferent sailor I shall not commit 
myself rashly to any technical nautical terms. One 
of the most patronised styles is that called the 
u whaler," a very safe sort of boat, and rigged with a 
mainsail, fore-sail and jib. Four-oars, wherries, punts, 
and all sorts and sizes of rowing-boats are abundant ; 
and one of the most exciting parts of the regattas is 
the trial for the championship of the harbour, by com- 
petitors sculling in the most diminutive boats. But 
all these are f amiliar enough to English readers ; it 
was the desire to say a few words on the canoes used 
in Nova Scotia that made me include boating in 
my list of Halifax amusements. The canoe is used 
only by the Indians, by sportsmen, and occasionally 
by parties engaged in the labours of lobster-spearing. 
It is made of birch-bark on a wooden frame, and 
D 



34 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

tapering at both ends. They are of all sizes, capable 
of carrying from one to a dozen passengers. They are 
very light, very buoyant, but very liable, from having 
no keel, to be upset. They are propelled not by oars, 
but by paddles, which are worked without rowlocks, 
and with the man who pulls facing the bow, not the 
stern of the vessel. They are remarkably easy to 
steer with the paddle, and can be propelled without 
any difficulty at a tremendous rate. Being so light 
they can, on an expedition, be conveniently carried 
from one lake to another, or across an island in a 
river. This is called making a portage. 

The most singular canoe journey I ever made, was 
crossing the St. Lawrence at Quebec, in the early part 
of January, 1862. The canoes there, although in 
shape and method of propulsion precisely the same as 
the Nova Scotian bark canoe, are made out of a single 
trunk, hollowed by fire or the axe. You are placed — . 
if a passenger, as I was — a little behind the centre of 
the canoe, and are deposited there before the canoe 
is launched. Being winter, I was covered with furs 
and rugs by the crew until I could not move my 
arms ; so the instructions I received to remain quiet, 
were rather superfluous. 

Huge fields of ice were hurrying down the current, 
and looking at the distance between my side of the 
river and the other, I could hardly see how we could 
escape being knocked to pieces by them. However, 
I resigned myself to my fate, and to my French- 
Canadian crew ; and they, five in number, as soon as 
I was ready, commmenced sliding the canoe down 
the beach into the river, each springing in and 
snatching his paddle as it was launched. Four of 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 35 



the crew knelt in the front part of the canoe, working 
their paddles furiously, and yelling like so many 
demons. The fifth, placing himself behind me, as- 
sumed the duties of coxswain. The instant we were 
in the stream, the fields of ice seemed stationary, 
owing to our being swept down at the same rate ; but 
still, I could not see how we were to cross, and waited 
with some anxiety for the first sheet of ice. This 
happened to be a large one ; and, pulling straight for 
it, as soon as the prow of the canoe touched it, the 
four men who were paddling sprung out, dragging 
the canoe after them across the ice, and on reaching 
the other side, launched it with wilder yells than ever, 
springing into the canoe at the same time, and re- 
suming their paddling as if for their lives. This was 
repeated at every sheet of ice, and in a far shorter 
time than I could have imagined, we touched the 
Quebec side, when a number of idlers, attaching a 
rope to our canoe, ran us up the slope from the river, 
and left me sitting, with my crew still shouting and 
gesticulating, in the very street, looking, I must own, 
rather bewildered. I am led to believe that there are 
very seldom accidents. 

Lobster-spearing is, probably, the most novel amuse- 
ment which one meets in Halifax. It is essentially a 
summer amusement, and one in which you engage 
after dark. It is necessary that the sea should be 
perfectly calm; and for this reason I always pre- 
ferred the north-west arm, which after sunset in 
summer is as calm as a millpond. But should the 
water be unrippled in the harbour or Bedford Basin, 
you can have good sport on the eastern side of the 
former, and round a small island called Navy Island 
d2 



36 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

in the latter. The north-west arm is unquestionably 
the prettiest thing about Halifax. The western side 
rises abruptly, and is covered with wood : maple, birch, 
and spruce. There are no houses on this side until 
we approach its junction with the harbour ; but in a 
beautiful recess near its head, there is an island 
called Melville Island, on which is a red brick military 
prison ; and if you can forget that it is so, you can 
have no idea how beautiful this little spot is. The 
other side of the arm, although rather abrupt every 
now and then, and well wooded, except opposite Mel- 
ville Island, where there are a good many beautiful 
meadows, bears a very different appearance to its vis-a- 
vis. It is studded with many pretty villas, whose white 
walls contrast well with the green back-ground ; and 
not to be left behind in point of prison accommodation, 
the civil powers have selected a site on this side near 
the batteries at Point Pleasant for their Penitentiary, 
an imposing granite building. If one might venture 
a little prophecy — assume for a moment the garb of 
a Zadkiel — I should say that in a few years another 
suburban city of villas will surround this branch of 
the sea ; and that the man of business will go from 
his house by the blue salt lake every morning to his 
desk in the city, as naturally as in our own busy me- 
tropolis he takes his 'bus from the West-end to the 
Bank. 

In going on a lobster-spearing expedition, there is 
no need of encumbering yourself with any great 
quantity of paraphernalia. Your boat must be flat- 
bottomed, and of small draught (the sort used are 
called " flats"), to enable you to keep as near the 
shore as possible ; you must have a good supply of 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 37 

torches, the best description of which is that made 
by the Indians, being merely rolls of birch-bark, 
about a foot and a quarter long, giving a better and 
more agreeable light than the pitch-torches which are 
sometimes used; and you should have a thoroughly 
good spear, a weapon of very simple construction. It 
is a long pole about the thickness of a child's wrist, 
with at one end two prongs of wood, which open and 
close with a spring ; and at the other a similar ar- 
rangement with, in addition, an iron prong ; the latter 
part of the spear being used for eels, and the former 
end for lobsters. The torch is placed in the bow of 
the boat, and as you move slowly along the shore, the 
light is so brilliant as to reveal everything at the bottom 
of the water; the fish moving about, and the dark 
bodies of the lobsters lying among the sea-weed. To 
secure your prey, you put the end of the spear gently 
in the water over the animal, approach it gradually 
until you are within an inch or two of his back ; then, 
taking a good aim immediately behind the claws, dart 
the spear smartly on him, and raise him out of the 
water to drop him in the boat. As a rule, they re- 
main perfectly motionless, as if fascinated by the 
light ; but if you miss them, you see them dart away 
like a shadow. Even a novice can take out dozens in 
a night. I need hardly say that there are few articles 
of food cheaper in the Halifax market than lobsters. 

By selecting these four amusements, do not let it 
be imagined that there is no cricket, nor rackets, nor 
the hundred other amusements of the young. There 
is an excellent cricket ground, besides a very large 
common, and the number of clubs is legion. The 
racket court, although of wood, like many others in 



38 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

America, is well patronised, and boasts of many ex- 
cellent players among its subscribers. And in the long 
winter evenings, for such as like it, there is no lack 
of the cosy rubber ; and in various buildings there 
are constant courses of lectures. There is a theatre 
of the very weakest description ; but in the first year 
of my residence in Halifax, the* lessee was Mr. 
Sothern, since so famous in London as Lord Dun- 
dreary. 

In passing now to the consideration of Halifax 
markets, I trust no apology is necessaiy for the intro- 
duction of so dull and practical a subject. Even 
viewing Halifax merely as a garrison, the commissariat 
is no unimportant consideration ; but I hope that I 
may be the means, in this rambling volume, of con- 
veying information concerning the various districts in 
which I was quartered, which may be useful also to 
the intending settler. And no matter can be more im- 
portant to him than that bearing on the products of 
a country which he may contemplate making his 
home. 

The animal products, so to speak, of Nova Scotia, 
which are represented in the Halifax markets, include 
as great a variety of fish, flesh, and fowl, as you meet 
in countries ten times its size. Cod, haddock, salmon, 
sea-trout, brown-trout, mackerel, herring, and halibut 
are among the common fish that crowd a market, 
second, I should think in point of variety, only to 
Billingsgate, and far ahead of it in point of cheap- 
ness ; nor are eels, lobsters, and oysters absent. Beef, 
mutton, moose and carriboo venison, are abundant 
and cheap : turkeys, geese, ducks, fowls, with game 
of all sorts — partridges, snipe, woodcock, plover, and 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 39 

wild-fowl of endless varieties — are all to be procured 
at prices which would amaze London housekeepers, 
and make the Tenth Commandment a most difficult 
one to obey. Salmon never rose above 6d. per lb. ; 
the most delicious cod and haddock could be had for 
6d. a piece ; mackerel and herring often two or three 
pence a dozen ; lake trout, about 2d. a bunch : halibut, 
3d. sterling per lb. ; oysters, about 2s. 6d. a bushel ; 
and lobsters, 2d. each. Beef and mutton could be 
bought in the markets at 5d. per lb., and much less 
in winter ; pork and ham, good and cheap ; fowls, 2s. 
a couple ; partridges, Is. a brace, and so on. Moose 
meat was generally 4cl. per lb. ; and carriboo venison 
a little more. 

Vegetables are represented in abundance ; the most 
common being potatoes, parsnips, beets, squash or 
pumpkin, cauliflower, peas, beans of all sorts, aspara- 
gus, spinach, cabbage, Scotch and sea-kale, celery, 
tomatoes, and onions, and all reaching great perfection. 
A very favourite, and supposed to be wmolesome, vege- 
table is the dandelion. 

Fruit is abundant : grapes, peaches, plums, melons, 
apples, pears, gooseberries, raspberries, currants, the 
wild strawberry and blackberry, blueberries, and 
cranberries, being among the fruits produced in the 
province ; and the trade with the "West Indies and 
other countries keeps the markets well supplied with 
tropical fruits. 

Before giving a list of wholesale prices current, 
taken from a recent paper, I should like my readers 
to understand that it is possible for five or six months 
of the year, during the cold weather, for housekeepers 
to buy their meat and other perishable articles in 



40 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

large quantities, and thus get the benefit of wholesale 
prices. For the carcases of the sheep, oxen, &c, in 
the markets, arrive from the country frozen perfectly 
stiff, and remain so without suffering any injury for 
any time. Before cooking, the part is chopped off 
with an axe, and thawed with cold water. The beef 
of Nova Scotia is much poorer than English beef, but 
the mutton, veal, and pork are very good. 

From the recent journal to which I referred, I 
find that the prices during the autumn of 1863, 
were : flour, 1/. a^barrel ; tea, Is. 8d. per lb., but the 
best quality is 2s. ; sugar, from 3d. to 5d. per lb. ; 
coffee, 10Jd. per lb. ; salt cod, 14s. a barrel ; herring, 
the same; mackerel, from 19s. to 11. 4s. a barrel; 
haddock, 9s. a barrel ; coal, 11. 4s. a chaldron ; wood, 
14s. a cord; beef, 11. 6s. per cwt. ; mutton, 4d. per 
lb. ; eggs, 9d. a dozen ; fowls, Is. 6d. a couple ; turkeys, 
6d. per lb. ; ducks, 2s. 4d. a couple ; butter, lOd. per lb. ; 
bacon and ham, 5d. per lb. ; oats, 2s. a bushel ; hay, 
3/. a ton ; potatoes vary according to the time of the 
year, from Is. 6d. to 2s. 9d. per bushel. 

The currency of Nova Scotia is somewhat peculiar, 
but the banks conduct everything in dollars and 
cents ; 100 cents making a dollar, whose correspond- 
ing English value is a little over 4s. But there is 
no paper issue in notes less than four dollars, in this 
respect differing from the neighbouring province of 
New Brunswick, where one dollar notes and upwards 
are issued. The old Halifax currency was rather 
peculiar and bewildering at first, one shilling of 
English money being equal to one shilling and three- 
pence of Nova Scotian money. An English half- 
crown was, therefore, changed into the complicated 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 41 

sum of 3s. Hd. ; and a pound was only worth 16s. 
English. There is no specie, however, used in the 
province, save our English coinage. 

The banks in the city are the Halifax Bank, the 
Bank of Nova Scotia, the Union Bank, and a branch 
of the Bank of British North America. 

The chief public works progressing at present in 
addition to those of the Imperial Government, which 
are always pretty extensive, are the paving of the 
whole city, the alteration and erection of some public 
buildings, and alterations in the arrangements for the 
water supply of the city. 

We pass now, in order, to a brief consideration of 
the climate of Halifax. The most unpleasant season 
is the spring ; and when one thinks of the fearful 
state of mud and slush in the streets at that season, 
one cannot say a word in defence of a period of the 
year which, even in England — where this impostor of 
the year is supposed to be delicious — is too generally 
objectionable. The most pleasant period of the year 
is during the months of September and October, when 
a second summer seems to commence, mingled with 
some of the bracing qualities of winter. The cold is 
t empered very much by the vicinity of the Atlantic ; 
and in summer the heat is in like manner moderated 
by the sea breezes. I never saw the thermometer lower 
in winter than 10 deg. below zero (Fahrenheit), and 
that is very exceptional. In summer I have seen the 
thermometer at 80 deg. in the shade, but I do not 
remember its ever having been higher. Dense fogs 
during the early part of the summer render that 
season very unpleasant, and are a source of great an- 
noyance to vessels outward bound, or bound for the 



42 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

port. It is particularly annoying when the mails are 
expected, and often detains the steamer off the har- 
bour for several days. The mails arrive from Eng- 
land once a fortnight by the Cunard line of steamers, 
which call en route for Boston. This line, so justly 
celebrated for their punctuality, safety, and good 
table, elate their origin to an enterprising cjtizen of 
Halifax; but, without wishing them any loss, one 
would like to see their monopoly interfered with, or 
some measures taken to reduce the rates of passage- 
money : 221. sterling is too much for a passage ave- 
raging nine or ten days, when one considers the hand- 
some subsidy the company receives for the carriage of 
the mails. 

The duration of winter is generally six months ; 
but the commencement and the end of winter are 
capricious and variable. I have seen heavy snow in 
November, and I remember a fall in the month of 
June ; so, were not vegetation very rapid, the summer 
season would be often too short. But winter is not 
the same dreary season here that it is at home. Far 
better is a dry frost or even heavy snow, than con- 
stant rain and mist and easterly winds; and more 
pleasant than a season of catarrhs and rheumatism, 
and close cabs, is a time of sleighing and snowshoeing 
and skating, and rosy cheeks. The very snow in 
America is not like English snow ; you may roll in 
it there and shake it off like dust, it is so dry. 

When the thermometer gets below a certain point, 
its further fall ceases to be so perceptible. And as 
long as the weather is calm, one can stand a great 
deal of cold ; it is when the wind is blowing fresh 
and the frost keen, that you feel as if one of those 



HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 43 

many-bladed knives, patronised by wandering He- 
brews, were at work on your face; and then it is 
that men fall out of the ranks frostbitten ; and the 
schooners come up the harbour covered with ice, 
their rigging frozen, and their crews disabled. 

Generally speaking, I should say that the climate 
of Halifax is very healthy, and that epidemics are 
rare. Yellow fever cannot exist here ; and for this 
reason all men-of-war in which this disease may 
appear in the West Indies, have orders instantly to 
make for this harbour. 

So much for Halifax as it is. But what Halifax 
may be, none can say. Nature has placed no limit 
to its future greatness; it remains for man, under 
Providence, to make it a mighty and prosperous city. 
There was a prospect — -I hope it may still exist — that 
this should be the Eastern terminus of the great in- 
tercolonial railroad ; that line which, winter or sum- 
mer, whether the St. Lawrence should be open, or 
bound by the iron grasp of Canadian frosts, should 
bring England within a few days of even the most 
westerly points of these her loyal colonies ; that line, 
too, which, without much straining of fancy, one 
could see would be a high-road to the East of Asia, 
over which the commerce of China, Japan, and India 
might journey with ease, and the dangers of Cape 
Horn become a tale that is told. 

Whether it is inertia on the part of the Nova 
Scotian Government, or jealousy on the part of the 
Canadian, I cannot say; but there is a lull in the 
eagerness which but lately influenced the promoters 
of this undertaking, and the guarantee of the Impe- 
rial Government, at which any company would have 



44 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

sprung with avidity at home, is left unused; and, 
perhaps, if left much longer, may be lost altogether. 

It is to be hoped that no short-sighted policy will 
be pursued in this matter; apart from the military 
value of the line, which prompted our Government to 
give their guarantee, its commercial value is such as 
to enrich the Lower Provinces, and create a brilliant 
future for Halifax as its terminus ; while Canada, 
no longer a sealed country in winter, or dependent on 
the railways of the Northern States, might attain a 
position of wealth and importance, compared with 
which her present is dimmer and feebler than that of 
her feeblest or remotest county. 

Is there anything else to say of this our first gar- 
rison, as far as concerns itself ? Much might I say of 
pleasant days under its shadow, much of kind friends 
among its people ; but our chapter is, perhaps, too 
long already. But in the collection of pleasing remi- 
niscences which we all cany in our bosoms, to take 
off the keen edge of present grief, or to beguile the 
hours of listless idleness, there are few which will 
yield me more pleasure in recalling than those which 
hover over this straggling city among the pine-woods 
of the Western Atlantic, which even now I see in my 
mind, with the blue smoke curling over its hospitable 
roofs — the shadows floating on its mighty harbour — 
the church-bells ringing out on its clear and bracing 
air ! 



45 



CHAPTER III. 

COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS 



At si condoluit tentatum frigore corpus. 

Horace's Sat. book i. 



Without going so far as to say that many of us 
went to America with the idea that it was infested — 
even to the streets — with wild animals, or that we 
could vary the monotony of daily parades by an occa- 
sional shot from our windows at a moose or a bear, 
I must admit that to the younger members of our 
community nothing in the natural history line that 
could have appeared would have seemed startling or 
even surprising. 

Walking even for a few miles into the country im- 
mediately surrounding Halifax, one was always fain 
to dream of forests primeval, and that absence of the 
human tracks, which, to men of Cooper's stamp, con- 
stitutes complete happiness. 

For my own part I do not blush to admit that the 
first Red Indian I saw can be described as nothing 
more or less than a blow. The want of feathers, the 
existence of trousers, indifferent indeed, but still there ; 
the appeals to two of my senses made by the abundant 



46 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

presence of filth on his person ; the keen and unro- 
m antic relish he had for coin, and his unquenchable 
appetite for drink, were so irreconcileable with the 
brilliant being that the perusal of the " Last of the 
Mohicans " had impressed on my mind, that I felt on 
the spot that another mine had been sprung under the 
fortress of human belief, and that my faith in any- 
thing and everything had received what Dick Swivel- 
ler would have called an "unmitigated staggerer." 
Yes ! he was very dirty, very indifferently clad ; for 
the annual imperial blanket which is given him as a 
sort of feu-rent for his hunting-grounds, is speedily 
converted into rum ; nor can I say that he possessed 
that gift — so essential to the Indian of one's imagina- 
tion — solemn and dignified silence. If I said he 
babbled and chattered, I should not exaggerate ; and 
if I said he lied, and lied consumedly, I should be 
stating in a concise form the leading characteristics of 
the race. 

I have said that we did not exactly expect to find 
beasts of prey crouching in the barracks to receive the 
deadly contents of our rifles ; but I must admit that we 
had many vague ideas that we had only to go a little way 
out of town, sleep as uncomfortably as possible in the 
open air, or nearly so, and, Micawber-like, something 
would be sure to turn up. We would have been horri- 
fi ed to be seen if an inch of snow was on the ground 
in any other garb than that of an embryo snow-shoe-er, 
although in our Fatherland we should have been con- 
tent with goloshes. One of our mess, let me call him 
Smith, 

Quid rides ? mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur, 

actually invested in a garment of hideous appearance, 
and exquisite discomfort, and casting off coat and 



COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS. 47 

waistcoat as trammels of civilisation, would wander 
about the outskirts of the town, where nought but 
cocky-oly birds abound, gun in hand, as if in momen- 
tary anticipation of a panther. 

My own mind was strongly impressed with the 
necessity of sleeping in the open air as one of the ac- 
complishments of the American hunter. I succeeded 
in persuading one of my brother officers, now, alas ! 
no more, of this necessity also, and I am sure that had 
we been prevented from indulging this whim, in the 
legitimate forest, we would have dispensed with our 
ordinary beds, camped out in the little vegetable gar- 
den behind our quarters, and there, in the shadow of 
unromantic cauliflowers and to the tune of discordant 
cats, would have dreamed of the eternal woods and the 
lordly elk. 

But we were saved from so degrading an alternative, 
and it took us three trips of exquisite anguish to con- 
vince us that 

Venator non nascitur sed fit, 

and that other conditions besides that of " Sub Jove 
frigido " are necessary to ensure success in sport. Let 
me mention these three. 

Somehow or other we got it into our poor benighted 
heads that the wild geese were flying over in large 
flocks one wild week in early spring, and that by going 
out any morning about 2 A.M., and grovelling on the 
damp ground for about four hours, near some of the 
lakes round Halifax, we would succeed in obtaining 
some of these ill-fated fowl. We did not know much 
about the topography of the district in those days, and 
my impression to this day is that on that melancholy oc- 
casion we prostrated ourselves for a whole night along- 
side of the waterworks, about two miles out of Halif ax, 



48 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

where one was as likely to get wild geese as u buffa- 
lers in Vermont !*' I know that nine out of ten of my 
readers will be ready to let a little joke here, so I shall 
anticipate them. Yes, dear, you are right and I am 
wrong, there were at least two geese there that 
stormy night. 

But I wander. We set about our plans most me- 
thodically. I think we dined early to be ready for 
any emergency; I believe we took a double allowance 
like a couple of Esquimaux going off for a fortnight. 
We would not dream of undressing or even lying down, 
although we did not mean to start until after mid- 
night . We dressed in the most serviceable and hideous 
garments we had ; I do not think we yet had moccasins 
or weshouldhave put them on, and cut our feet to pieces 
on the stony roads. At last the hour came — never more 
solemnly did the hour of twelve fall on Pestal's ears : 
taking as much ammunition as would have extermi- 
nated an army of human geese, we turned our backs 
on civilisation and the barracks, and our faces to the 
mighty forest. It was, I have said, two miles off ; 
the night was dark as Erebus, and we stumbled and 
hurt ourselves horribly ;. it poured — oh ! how it did 
pour ; but I think we should have been disappoin ted 
if it had been fine, or if we had been at all comfort- 
able. At last we reached the spot. Selecting a very 
damp and muddy spot, we lay down, and waited for 
the geese and the dawn. The latter came, but not 
the former ; and by the time the daylight gun came 
booming heavily over the tree-tops to where we lay, 
we were as uncomfortable as we could wish. We 
never saw anything in the form of animal life, not 
even a robin, on which to wreak our vengeance : and 



COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS. 49 

at last, worn out, very cold, very wet, and very silent, 
we wended our way back to barracks. On entering 
our rooms, our first exclamation must have been, on 
looking down, " Oh my poor feet ! " 

This was number one ; number two was very nearly 
being more serious, and certainly was very wretched. 

Still pursuing the plan of going entirely on our own 
experience, or rather inexperience, we started one day 
for a place called Cole Harbour, about four miles from 
Halifax, where there is excellent fishing in summer 
and autumn, and, at certain seasons of the year, very 
fair chances of wild fowl. To reach Cole Harbour, 
one has to cross the harbour of Halifax to Dartmouth, 
a pretty little village, where business men often reside, 
crossing daily to the city in the ferry-boats, which ply 
every few minutes until ten or eleven at night. I can 
hardly recal the circumstances of this trip in their 
entirety ; but I remember, and as the reader will 
presently see with reason, that we took a large white 
setter rejoicing in the name of Don. I do not know 
why we took him, for he was no use as a sporting dog, 
and proved an incumbrance ; but these were the days 
of our sporting infancy, and our actions now seem 
most unaccountable. Our intention was to camp out 
near the harbour, which is merely an inlet of the sea, 
and not used for shipping, and in the early morning to 
go out on the ice (for it was frozen almost entirely 
over) and there and then put an end to any unhappy 
wild duck that might present itself. We had about 
as much idea of building a camp as of chiselling 
a statue; but we scorned advice, and accordingly 
started, encumbered with a number of articles which 
proved utterly useless, and with a kit remarkable for 

E 



50 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the absence of what would have been taken by any 
experienced woodsman. For example, take the item 
of tea — which we had learned was the only orthodox 
beverage in the woods — we started with an amount in- 
tended for twenty-four hours' consumption which 
would have amply sufficed in a large family for a fort- 
night. I remember, too, we drank it without milk, 
and boiled it in snow ; I suppose because we would 
not be indebted to any of the minions of civilisation, 
although in our camp we were within hearing of the 
lowing of cattle more numerous than the herds of 
Abraham, and in five minutes could have obtained 
any quantity of fresh water. Nor must I forget an 
enormous axe, which, after much solemn deliberation, 
we purchased, and which proved to us a source of great 
agony and discomfort on our journey. As we plodded 
along with it slung in a hanger, a la mode, behind our 
backs alternately, we were constantly getting the 
handle between our legs, and coming within an ace of 
falling : and while on board the ferry-boat the anguish 
I endured when setting down with the keen edge of 
that weapon within half an inch of my spinal cord, 
can only be compared to the tortures of the Inquisition. 
That dreadful animal, Don, was that day in such 
exuberant spirits, and yielded to so warm and frequent 
bursts of affection, that cold as the day was his move- 
ments kept the bearer of that awful axe hi a free per- 
spiration. For it was no joke to have his heavy body 
leaping up against one's person, when the slightest 
disturbance of the perpendicular might have severed 
the lower part of our trunk from the upper : but no 
threats or blandishments could restrain him. I remem- 
ber, also, an elaborate set of cooking utensils, called 



COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS. 51 

a camp equipage, which would have amply sufficed to 
prepare a banquet for twelve, instead of the unhappy 
little bit of salt provisions which, according to hunters' 
custom, we earned with us. Fortunately we also pro- 
vided ourselves with a buffalo robe and two or three 
railway rugs, or this tale would never have been 
written. 

On our arrival at the spot which seemed to our 
eyes most suitable, we commenced our maiden attempt 
at building a camp. Selecting two trees, tolerably 
near to one another, we placed a cross piece between 
them over the branches, about six feet from the 
ground; and against this we commenced to lay a 
number of long branches at an angle of about 45 deg. 
We proposed to cover these with birch-bark, but being 
stronger in the theory than the practice of peeling 
bark, to say nothing of there being rather a dearth of 
birch-trees, we compromised the matter by spreading 
a railway rug over them. Under this canopy we 
made a bed of green spruce boughs about a foot deep ; 
and having thus in the dead of -winter erected a poor 
imitation of a summer camp, we proceeded to cut fire- 
wood, and to make a blaze in front of our camp, where, 
when we were lying down, our feet would be. But, 
as a matter of course, at this moment the wind chopped 
round, so that the smoke from the fire was blown 
straight in upon us ; and to our other miseries was 
added the risk of suffocation. Nothing daunted, we 
set about cutting as much firewood as would last the 
whole night; and about six o'clock, with blistered 
palms and aching shoulders, we commenced to prepare 
a meal. 

Our attempts at tea were as ludicrous as the result 
e2 



52 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

was infamous ; and owing to our indifferent style of 
frying bacon, we dropped more slices into the fire than 
we ate ; but I do not hesitate to say that our boiled 
eggs were a triumph. True, some fastidious creatures 
might have objected to them on the ground of hard- 
ness, even to the consistency of a bullet; but who 
shall talk of indigestion, that curse of civilisation, to 
us, the denizens of the forest ? 

Our meal being ended we commenced preparations 
for repose, spreading the rugs and other articles of 
clothing so as to derive most benefit from them. The 
cessation from work, the warmth of the fire, and the 
soothing influence of our self-prepared meal, produced 
a feeling of comfort and pleasure, and for about an 
hour we sat talking and looking at the beautiful re- 
flexion of the fire on the dark background of trees, 
whose branches it tipped with a vivid glare, making 
them stand out from the darkness which their own 
brightness deepened, until one seemed in a region of 
romance. The red sparks were hurrying upwards in 
a confused army, until rising over the tree-tops they 
were caught by the wind and beaten into the leeward 
darkness to expire. 

We then turned in, resolving to get up alternately 
to put on fresh firewood ; but the fatigue induced by 
our unwonted exercise soon threw us both into a sound 
slumber, which was not broken until about two a.m., 
when we both awoke almost simultaneously from cold. 
Since falling asleep the wind had risen to nearly a 
hurricane, and, coming howling up from the sea, it 
seemed like a demon let loose. The noise it made 
shrieking among the trees was wild and dismal ; and 
as I write this I can hear it almost again. For not 



COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS. 53 

three hundred yards from me the Channel is heaving 
and roaring under the influence of a westerly wind, 
which, tearing in from the Atlantic, is churning into 
a white foam the belt of sea between me and the Isle 
of Wight. Vessels are scudding past under close- 
reefed topsails ; and others, riding at anchor, are rising 
and falling, jerking impatiently at their cables like a 
restive horse. And through every crevice in the 
windows the boisterous wind is whistling shrilly to 
me in a falsetto accompaniment to the moan of the 
sea as it beats heavily on the shingly shore. 

Our fire had almost gone out — a few red embers 
alone remaining to testify where it had been ; and the 
frost had reached a pitch of intensity which was posi- 
tive anguish. The darkness was like that which can 
be felt — Egypt itself, in that long dark night of pun- 
ishment, could not have been darker ; and to crown 
our horror, we found that our supply of firewood could 
by no possibility last more than an hour or two longer, 
so quickly did the cold and the wind make it burn. 
To lie till dawn without a fire on that wild night, and 
above a bed of snow, would have been certain death 3 
so, there being no alternative, we set to work feeling 
in the dark for trees whose branches we might break 
off for burning. One with a knif e, the other with that 
dreadful axe, we at last cut about an hour's supply of 
small wood, and were going on in better spirits, when, 
feeling my way in the darkness for another tree, I 
suddenly saw like a flash of light before my eyes, and 
felt my left eye torn under the lower lid by a sharp 
substance, which proved to be the forked branch of 
a decayed tree, and then the warm blood trickling 
down my face. Dropping the axe, and turning to- 



54 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

wards the fire, I soon managed with my companion's 
aid to bind it np ; but my exploits in the firewood 
line were for that night over. Half an hour's longer 
work exhausted my companion, plucky though he 
was ; and when he sat clown beside me we felt that 
although the dawn was several hours off, and at the 
outside our supply would not see two, we could do no 
more, and must content ourselves with our ruffs and 
other coverings. 

Cowering under our wraps, we soon, in spite of cold, 
were again in the land of sleep : dreaming as softly 
on that bed of snow to the harsh lullaby of the howl- 
ing wind as any fan girl on her bed of down ! Slowly 
the hours passed over us and found us still unconscious, 
and it was six o'clock ere we awoke and discovered, as 
we anticipated, our fire to be out, and ourselves to be 
in an agony of cold. Xot caring to furnish a second 
edition of the " Babes in the Wood," we sprang up 
and commenced, dark though it still was, to run about, 
to cut fresh wood, to make a brief and brilliant blaze 
with the spruce branches which had formed our bed, 
and, in short, to do anything which would aid in giving 
us warmth by increased circulation. To little purpose, 
however : as any one who has experienced that grey 
horn- before the dawn on an American winter morn- 
ing will readily believe. We succeeded, however, in 
making a feebly permanent flame on our blackened 
h earth : and while one attempted with gigantic energy 
to boil some snow, the other went to the back of our 
little camp, where, with our other parcels, the tea, 
wrapped in whity-brown, had been deposited. A 
groan of anguish from the latter individual soon pro- 
claimed that our catalogue of miseries had not been 



COMIC ADVENTURES IN THE WOODS. 55 

completed, and brought his companion in hot haste to 
know the worst. Consideration for my readers would 
induce me to spare him, or her, should I be so fortu- 
nate, the employment of a very hackneyed simile, but 
really I can remember nothing equally expressive. 
Marios over the ruins of Carthage is of course the 
simile I mean — but should in the mean time an earth- 
quake, or a new railway company, demolish Temple 
Bar, I shall substitute an agonised corporation weep- 
ing over its unhappy stones : and yet I question 
whether either of these similes would convey a good 
idea of the frenzied grief that possessed us. For, 
alas ! where, neatly folded, just under the curtain of 
our camp, our tea had been placed for the night's re- 
pose, we beheld a horrible confusion of tea-leaves, 
dog-hairs, snow, and spruce-needles, mixed to the con- 
sistency of an inextricable paste; and with wagging 
tail but guilty eyes there stood the villain — Don — 
who in the cold of the night had selected this as his 
bed instead of the utterly outer world where we had 
doomed him to repose. 

Did we drink that tea ? Dear reader ! the ther- 
mometer was at zero and below ; our limbs frozen, 
our thirst severe, and the water commenced then to 
sing merrily on the fire. What would you have done ? 
***** 

The sky soon lightened towards the east to enable 
us to make off for the harbour with our guns, if we 
meant to do the duck any harm. Seizing our guns — 
trying to be as cheerful as possible — scowling horribly 
at Don, and ordering him to stay behind — a command 
which, it is needless to say, he utterly disregarded, we 
made tracks for the ice, and soon reaching it, com- 



56 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

menced to pick our way over the huge blocks which 
the tide had scattered in picturesque confusion along 
the shore. On reaching the smooth surface, we com- 
menced with anxious hearts and with a tremulous 
itching at the locks of our guns, to move stealthily in 
a direction where a promontory of the land jutted out, 
and would afford us a good chance of a shot at any 
birds that might be on the other side. 

We had gone, it may be, a hundred yards, and were 
walking in a line about fifteen feet apart, — when — 
crack ! a loud report, and like two clowns in a Christ- 
mas pantomime, down we went into the sea through a 
fissure between two fields of ice which the night's frost 
had frozen but treacherously over. Fortunately the 
opening was narrow, and the ice on either side strong ; 
so the instinct that made us throw out our arms 
saved us, for we by this means supported ourselves, 
and were never deeper in the water than our waists. 
While thus suspended, Don's conduct was outrageous. 
Circling round us with delighted gambols, and bark- 
ing himself hoarse as if to express approbation of a 
performance which he evidently thought was got up 
entirely for his gratification, he irritated us beyond 
measure — sore as we still were on the subject of the 
tea. We soon swung ourselves out, and in less time 
than I take to write it our nether garments froze 
stiff ; and while hurrying back to the camp as fast as 
we could under the circumstances to dry ourselves 
and thaw our garments at the small fire we had left, 
we were irresistibly like that gallant company of Fat- 
staff's, who walked as if they had gyves between 
then' legs. On arrival we stripped off our unmen- 






COMIC ADVENTURES IX THE WOODS. 57 

tionables, improvised short petticoats with our railway 
rugs, and cutting more firewood, watched with much 
interest the steam rising in clouds for over an hour 
from our suspended garments. At last they were 
dried ; and striking our camp in disgust, we moved off 
with determination, and had a hot meal at the first 
farm-house, of which we partook with energy, but 
with a delight qualified by the feeling that as far as 
we were concerned, the wild duck seemed in no dan- 
ger of extermination in the vicinity of Cole Harbour. 
***** 
I once thought of telling the tale of number three, 
but on attempting it I find it impossible. Not that 
the miseries we endured were beyond description — far 
from it — but there rises before my mind with plaintive 
associations a scene on a bright morning; of June, after 
a miserable night in a wretched camp under torrents 
of rain, when, being at last dry and comfortable, and 
havino; a meal more fortunate than' most within our 
camping experience, we sat down to while an hour or 
two in idle talk, and in contemplating the picture be- 
fore us. The dark waters of Coalpit Lake below — 
the manv tints of green which the forest had donned 
to greet the sun after the weary hours of rain and 
wind — the glittering drops of moisture on the leaves, 
like so many little mirrors held out by the loving 
branches to catch the smiles of the cloud-dispelling 
sun — the music of birds, the hum of insects, the lazy 
smoke wreathing its blue column upwards from our 
expiring fire, — truly it was a beautiful scene ! But, 
alas ! to-morrow I might go and see the same bright 
picture again, for nature dies but to live again in a 



58 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

few short weeks in equal beauty; but thou who wert 
the charm of that morning with thy merry quips, thy 
cynical jokes put on to hide the warm stream of good 
nature welling up from thy genial heart, thou canst 
never more be there. Sleeping that sleep which 
knows not storm nor sunshine ; where music of birds 
can never reach thee, nor the whispering of trees ever 
penetrate, — there would be a blank in the scene were 
I to revisit it, which nor sun, nor bright tints, nor 
sweet music, could ever refil. 



59 



CHAPTEE IV. 

SPORT IN EARNEST. 

Quince. This green plot shall be our stage: this hawthorn brake 
our tyring-house : and we will do it in action. 

Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Although a glossary of terms comes generally at 
the end of a book, there is one word which I think it 
advisable to explain at once for the benefit of my 
English reader. It is the word "hunting," as used 
in America. It conveys a very different meaning 
from that it bears in connexion with the H. EL, or the 
Pytchley. It must raise no vision in your mind of 
pink and buckskins, of post and rail or running 
hounds ; and, instead of giving tongue, you must 
think more of holding it. A sporting tour in the Far 
West is a little different from the immortal one of 
Mr. Sponge; and there is no resemblance between 
Jorrick's hunt and a moose-hunt. In the whole of 
British North America there is but one pack of fox- 
hounds — at Montreal — and it is rather a failure. 
Foxes are shot as vermin everywhere ; and top-boots 
are replaced by moccasins. 

The sport in Nova Scotia is various. The larger 



60 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

game are moose, carriboo, and bears. The moose, 
with whose ungainly appearance most of my readers 
are probably familiar, is hunted in various ways. It 
is either called in autumn, run down on snow-shoes 
in winter, or hunted with dogs. The last-mentioned 
method is not orthodox. The carriboo, which is, I 
believe, synonymous with the reindeer, is generally 
stalked ; and is, in point of sport and of flavour, far 
superior to the moose. The bear of Nova Scotia is 
the black bear of America ( Ursus Americanus), and is 
hunted in summer chiefly at night, and killed in 
winter when in a state of hibernation. 

The smaller game are wild fowl of every descrip- 
tion ; wild geese, teal, the blue-winged duck, brant, 
and the eider-duck. The partridge of Nova Scotia 
is of two species — the birch and the spruce partridge — 
and has no resemblance to, or affinity with, the Eng- 
lish partridge. In size and flavour it resembles an 
English pheasant ; but its habits are peculiar to itself, 
and will be alluded to more fully as our chapter pro- 
gresses. Snipe and woodcock need no comment. 

After describing simply the method pursued in 
hunting or shooting the aforesaid animals, I shall 
make some allusion to the fishing in the province. 

But I approach the consideration of these matters 
with considerable diffidence. I am more of an ob- 
serving naturalist than a Nimrod, although not prac- 
tically ignorant of Nova Scotian sport. But I am so 
unfortunate as to follow in the tracks of one who is 
at once an accomplished naturalist and a thorough 
sportsman. 

In a book published some years ago by Captain 
Hardy, of the same regiment as myself, the whole 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 61 

sport of Nova Scotia was described in a searching 
and almost voluminous manner. Few have had so much 
experience as he of the Nova Scotian woods ; and, in 
attempting a similar task, even although merely as a 
chapter in a work meant to embrace many other 
details and other subjects, I feel unpleasantly like 
the ambitious frog of fabulous memory who at- 
tempted to equal the ox. My excuses must be that 
the work referred to is difficult now to obtain, and, 
perhaps, beyond the means of many who would like 
to hear a word or two on the sports of our American 
colonies ; and secondly, that I am in a measure com- 
pelled to make some allusion to a subject without 
which — particularly in the eyes of my military readers 
— a description of a province would be deemed very 
incomplete. 

My first task shall be the description of the outfit 
required by a Nova Scotian sportsman, and the dis- 
tricts to which he ought -to direct himself. 

Moccasins are of various sorts. They are made of 
either tanned or untanned hide; of moose and car- 
riboo-skin with the hair on ; or of other leathers, more 
or less ornamented, according as the fancy of the 
wearer or the maker may have suggested. They are 
indispensable in the woods. The best style of gar- 
ments are those made of the homespun cloth woven 
in the province, which, in addition to the virtue of 
cheapness, has also the advantage of being easily 
dried. It may be lined in winter for additional 
warmth. A tight-fitting fur or woollen cap, with ear- 
flaps, is the best head-dress; and for covering at 
night there is nothing equal to the buffalo robe un- 
lined. For weapons, a double-barrelled rifle, breech- 



•32 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

loading if possible, is best, with a good supply of 
cartridges in a waterproof-case ; and a stout axe is a 
sine qua nan. A large clasp-knife, worn like a sailors, 
is also very useful. For provisions, take plenty of 
biscuit, an ample supply of tea, a little salt pork or 
bacon, sugar, and a little bread or " Soft Tommy" as 
it is called. 

For camp-equipage, take a tin kettle, a frying-pan, 
a small saucepan, two or three tin pannikins, and two 
or three knives and forks. Beginners err generally 
in taking too many things, encumbering themselves 
unnecessarily ; but the above list includes all that are 
absolutely required. You should take no spirits; 
chiefly because of your Indian, who cannot 
liquor, and is helpless under it : but also because tea 
is a far better beverage for all in the woods. A little 
ground ginger is not a b ad thing to carry, to be used 
medicinally, if required. 

For use about your camp, in addition to your heavv 
axe, a couple of small hatchets or tomahawks are con- 
venient for lopping off small branches, and many 
other little matters which will occur to any sportsman. 
A supply of cord should always be carried. 

The Indians in Nova Scotia are a very degenerate 
race, and there are few who can be recommended for 
hunting companions. 'When I was there, the best 
was a man known as John Williams : and the others 
most patronised were men of the name of Paul : two 
men, " Ole Bonus" and k, Xoel Bonus/' for the spell- 
ing of whose names I object to be held responsible ; 
and an arch impostor in Cumberland comity rejoicing 
in a name sounding like Barbei, familiarly known as 
" Bob-my-eye." The wages an Indian receives on a 



SPORT IX EARNEST. (33 

hunting expedition are a dollar a day, and his keep. 
They are, as a rule, lazy dogs, and have to be kept 
well to their work. They are filthy in person, and it 
is a useful precaution to make them repose on the op- 
posite side of the fire to yourself. 

For moose, the districts vary every year. One 
year, perhaps, the best sport was round to the east- 
ward of Halifax, next year to the westward. During 
the years I resided in Nova Scotia, more moose were 
killed in the country round the Ship Harbour Lakes, 
Sheet Harbour, and Tangier, than any other, al- 
though they were frequently met with in Upper 
and Lower Stewiacke, and even on Hammond's 
Plains. A good Indian can, if he chooses, almost 
always ensure your falling in with moose ; but during 
the last vear or two there have been gold mines 
opened round Tangier, so I fancy they have spoiled 
one's chance of sport in the neighbourhood. 

Moose are called in autumn durino- the rutting; 
season. It is done at night by moonlight, and to 
imitate the calls of the female moose, an artifice em- 
ployed to bring up the bull moose, you employ a sort 
of speaking-trumpet made of the birch-bark. The 
call of the bull is often imitated, as at that season the 
animal is wild and furious, and is as ready to gratify 
the passion of combat with another bull, as anv more 
legitimate one. The hunter with his Indian, placing 
themselves in a good position, commence calling and 
should there be any moose in the vicinity, they will be 
heard presently coming through the woods, crashing 
and snapping the branches, with a noise like that of 
fire-arms. Considerable skill is required, as may be 
imagined, in the modulation of the calls, but should 



64 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

they be given properly, the animal can be easily 
brought within range — indeed, within a few yards. So 
huge does the animal look at this short distance, and 
by the uncertain light, that firing at it seems — as I 
heard a sportsman say — like firing into the side of a 
house. 

At this season of the year the hunter's camp is of 
very simple construction, and is known as a summer 
camp. It is built much as the unhappy edifice 
alluded to in the last chapter was constructed, and 
is floored with a considerable thickness of spruce 
branches, forming a clean, fragrant, and luxurious 
bed. 

You sleep with your feet to the fire, and covered 
with your buffalo robe, and it is the duty^of the In- 
dian to replenish the fire with wood during the night. 
The duty I found them very apt to neglect after 
killing anything; for I remember on one occasion, 
when my companion had shot a carriboo, our Indians 
eat so greedily and so abundantly as to become per- 
fectly torpid about midnight, and our fire — to our 
great suffering — was allowed to go out. I remember 
on that occasion, that after watching them eat incre- 
dible quantities of the meat, from about four o'clock, 
steadily, till ten o'clock at night, the last thing I saw 
before falling asleep was the whole brisket of the 
animal stuck up on twigs in front of the fire to roast, 
and before falling into their unearthly and loathsome 
sleep they devoured every bit of it. 

The winter camp is in construction perfectly dif- 
ferent. It is more like a wigwam — a conical hut, 
with a framework of poles or branches, and a cover- 
ing of bark. The fire is in the centre of the build- 



SPORT IX EARNEST. 65 

ing, and unless you lie down you run a risk of suffo- 
cation from the smoke. 

In winter, the moose is either run clown upon snow- 
shoes, or shot when in a yard. This latter proceed- 
ing is singular. 

When the snow is very deep, a herd of moose beat 
down, by trotting up and down, a considerable space, 
which is called a yard, and in which they remain as 
long as they can obtain food from the branches of the 
trees they thus enclose. Sometimes when the snow 
is deeper than usual, the yard seems surrounded by 
lofty walls of snow, and there is no egress. On the 
discover}' of a yard, and its being reported, men go 
out and shoot the moose in it by half dozens. 

To hunt the moose on snow-shoes it is desirable to 
have a slight crust on the snow, sufficient to support 
the weight of the hunter on snow-shoes, but through 
which the sharp hoofs of the animal sink at every 
step, wounding and lacerating it, as well as making 
its progress naturally slow. My readers are probably 
familiar with the appearance of snow-shoes, oval 
with points behind, and a close net-work of raw hide 
in the frame. The wearer must use moccasins, and the 
snow-shoe is attached to the foot by a small toe-band 
on the shoe, and thongs on the moccasin. The heel 
is perfectly free, and in raising the foot in progres- 
sion, the rear part of the snow-shoe is allowed to drag 
licjhtlv on the snow. There are few exercises more 
delightful than this, and an adept can perform any- 
thing, even the most wonderful feats. A beginner is 
pretty certain to meet with some falls, and in soft 
deep snow it is not so easy a matter to rise on snow- 
shoes. 



6G OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

The moose when brought to bay is a dangerous 
animal, its most effective weapon being its fore-feet, 
with which it strikes out furiously. The horns are 
very large and palmated ; and in moving through the 
woods it carries its head so as to bring the horns paral- 
lel with its back. Its most rapid form of progression 
is a long shambling trot, much faster than it looks. 
The flesh of the moose is like coarse beef, and is 
seldom fat ; but the choice part, in a culinary point of 
view, is the mouffle, a long upper lip, somewhat taper- 
like in appearance, and which makes a soup superior to 
turtle. The hair is coarse ; and a large tuft under the 
throat of the bull is called the " bell." The colour is a 
deep brown. The moose is quite capable of being 
tamed if taken young ; and has been used in drawing 
a sleigh. There was a young moose kept in the Artil- 
lery Park in Halifax some years ago, which, inter alia, 
knew the trumpet calls for the various meals, I believe, 
as well as the gunners. It was very fond of bread ; 
but it died a victim to its appetite for turnips. There 
having been some difficulty in obtaining moose-wood 
in the winter, a shrub on which the animals live to a 
great extent, its owner was advised to feed it with 
turnips. Its relish for them was so great that it died 
from distension, arising from over-eating. 

In the woods, when after moose or carriboo, as may 
readily be imagined, all unnecessary noise is to be 
avoided ; so in case of absence of sport one is often 
driven to extremities for food. If no settlement is 
near, and one dare not fire off one's gun at smaller 
game, there are worse substitutes for better food than 
the porcupine. This small annual generally makes 
for a tree, and will remain there until you cut it 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 67 

down, when a blow on the nose will speedily put an 
end to it. I know few animals that make a more 
pleasant fricassee. They are easily domesticated to a 
certain extent ; I remember two which lived for several 
weeks in a large tree in our barrack-square. 

The carriboo {Rangifer Tarandus, I think) is an 
animal which affords a sport more like deer-stalking 
in Scotland than any other of the tribe I know. It 
is of a grey colour ; far inferior in size, as it is superior 
in grace, to the moose ; and yielding a venison of deli- 
cious flavour. Its antlers are long and slightly pal- 
mated ; it travels in herds, and from all I have seen 
or heard, the best district for finding them in Nova 
Scotia is County Cumberland, and chiefly the barrens 
between Parrsboro' and Amherst. 

The best season for stalking the carriboo is imme- 
diately after the first fall of snow, when you do not re- 
quire snow-shoes, and can track them on the snow as 
accurately as if you had the best staghounds. On 
Christmas week, 1857, 1 was after carriboo in a dis- 
trict about eight miles from Parrsboro', with a com- 
panion and a couple of Indians. The reason one goes to 
a barren for carriboo is, that there is a species of lichen, 
called carriboo moss, on which the animal feeds, and 
which is found on these barren plains, even in winter, 
in great abundance. On the leew r ard side of one 
of these barrens, the clay after Christmas, wdth on our 
left a number of hardwood ridges, we were all crawl- 
ing on all-fours looking carefully round us for tracks. 
An old Indian was first, then my companion, then came 
the second Indian, and lastly myself. Feeling con- 
fident that those in front of me would detect any 
tracks without my assistance, I suffered my eyes to 
f2 



68 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

rove round our limited horizon, and to my amazement 
I saw, about a quarter of mile to windward, some ten or 
eleven grey animals grazing so peaceably, that never 
] laving seen a carriboo before, I could not for the life 
of me believe that they were anything but cows. 

However, I pulled the Indian in front of me by the 
leg, and pointed them out to him ; giving a grunt which 
may have meant surprise, but certainly anything but 
gratitude, he attracted the leading Indian's attention, 
and soon, trembling with excitement, we were crawling 
towards them rapidly ; nor did they get alarmed until 
we were within a couple of hundred yards, when, with 
grunts of terror they made off, and we rose and fired. 

That same afternoon I saw a singular instance of 
tenacity of life in a carriboo which fell to my com- 
panion's rifle. We had separated on a large barren, 
and were some half mile apart when I heard the crack 
of his piece, and after a few minutes saw him and his 
Indian running. Concluding he had done something, 
we made tracks after them, and came up with them, busy 
in the work of dissecting a fine fat deer. Now it seems 
that in his anxiety my companion had put both bullets 
into one barrel, and on firing at the deer he aimed at, he 
first pulled the trigger of the blank barrel, and then, 
when the herd was a good deal further away, he fired 
the second. The animal seemed to stagger, but went 
on with the herd into a copse of spruce-trees which 
bordered the barren. They, therefore, presumed that 
the deer had been missed; however, they strolled 
quietly over to where the herd had been feeding, and 
to then* surprise they saw large drops of blood on the 
snow. They started running, and as they ran they 
saw the crimson stream thicker in the snow; and 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 69 

in about fifty yards they came on a tree, the trunk 
of which was covered with blood, where the poor dying 
brute had staggered against it. Here its tracks 
separated from the herd's, and they followed them in a 
circle about seventy or eighty yards further, where 
they came on it lying dead. On cutting it up we 
found the heart actually torn in two by the bullets or 
bullet ; and how the poor brute could have managed to 
run the distance it did, passed our comprehension. It 
was speedily skinned and quartered, and each of us 
with our still warm and bleeding burden staggered 
homewards to our camp and a hearty supper. 

I never saw a bear in the woods, although I fre- 
quently came on then' tracks. I am led, however, 
by those who have been more fortunate than myself, 
to believe that the bear is singularly cunning when 
pursued, and dangerous when brought to bay, or 
wounded. They often leap from their tracks, several 
feet to one side, and return almost in the same direc- 
tion as they came, thus baffling for a time those in 
chase. They are very annoying about a settlement, 
destroying sheep and even calves. I remember one 
about fourteen miles from St. John, New Brunswick, 
which for a long time annoyed the settlers greatly in 
this way. The hams are very good when cured ; and 
the skin makes the most beautiful robes for the 
sleigh. 

There are indescribable charms in the life of a 
hunter in the woods. Apart altogether from the 
fact of sport and its consequent excitement, there is 
a singular pleasure and sense of freedom in this life, 
which require to be felt and enjoyed, before they 
can be understood. There are so many appeals to 



70 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the fancy, to the taste, — ay! — even solemn ones to 
the soul, which even the dullest mind cannot resist. 
There are certain irksome cares and ties in civilisa- 
tion, which do not control one in the woods ; and, I 
half think, of only one profession can it be said, even 
the hunter's — 

Post venatorem non sedet atra cura. 

The inexperienced may imagine — not even the en- 
thusiast can fully comprehend until he has actually 
enjoyed it — the pleasure of sitting round the camp- 
fire after a good day's work, and a hearty supper, 
and chatting in that easy unforced way, which one 
seldom can follow when under the shadow of more 
substantial roofs, and within hearing of more critical 
ears. And should you be more wakeful than your 
companions, and sit later than they, you will find 
your solitude broken in upon by those grand myste- 
rious noises in the woods at night, which make, to a 
vivid fancy, the forest seem as an enchanted land. 
Away in the great darkness, in the circle beyond the 
little cosy arena reddened and glowing with our 
merry fire, one hears every now and then — all as if 
intensified by the solitude and the darkness — the crash 
of some falling tree, the melancholy note of the 
owl as he sits " warming his five wits," or the wail of 
the loon by some small forest lake. Such a moment 
and such a scene might have suggested to a dark 
genius, like that of Poe, his gloomy fines on, 

The dim lake of Auber, 
In the misty mid region of Weir : 

clown by the dank tarn of Auber, 

In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir ; 

or those wonderful dreamy fines when he Bines of — 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 71 

A route obscure and lonely, 
Haunted by ill-angels only, 
"Where an Eidolon named Night, 
On a black throne reigns upright. 

But not to the cheerful spirit will it be a scene as to 
his dark thoughts — 

Where the traveller meets aghast 
Sheeted memories of the Past. 

Ah ! no ! to us would those other lines of his come 
in more truly, we hope — 

For the heart whose woes are legion, 
'Tis a peaceful soothing region : 
For the spirit that walks in shadow, 
'Tis, oh ! 'tis an Eldorado ! 

But we are getting low-spirited and romantic. 
We are abruptly recalled from the poetical phase of 
our reverie by one of those sounds which — whether 
in the woods or the city — are antidotes to poesy. I 
mean a snore ; than which no human utterance is 
more practical or fancy-dispelling. So, coiling our 
toasted limbs under the buffalo, and pausing just for 
a moment to listen to the cry of some wandering 
lucifee, we speedily exchange our waking dreams for 
those of slumber, and aid to swell the discordant 
chorus which rises from our lonely camp. 

There are no sluggards in the woods. Early astir, 
we make for the nearest water, should it be summer 
to have a dip, and should it be winter to break the 
ice and lave our face and hands ; returning, as 
Dickens says in " Pickwick," with a good digestion 
waiting on appetite, and health on both, to our break- 
fast. This meal, prepared in our absence by the In- 
dians, who seem to have a constitutional objection to 
ablutions of any sort, we soon despatch, making nothing 



72 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of a pound or two of venison, should it be in camp, and 
stowing away, without so much as winking, as much 
tea flavoured with brown sweetening (as sugar is called 
by the peasantry) and innocent of milk, as would serve 
with ease for the morning consumption of a large 
public school. Arrangements are now made for the 
direction in which we shall hunt during the day; 
the singular instinct possessed by the Indian render- 
ing it a matter of no uneasiness even in a strange 
wood, how far we may wander from our camp. And 
leaving this point to be discussed by the rest of our 
party, let us look round at the woods by day. The 
first thing which strikes one is the singular absence 
of ornithological life. There is, to one accustomed 
to the abundant songster world in our English. copses, 
something at first almost painful in the silence in 
Nova Scotian woods — a silence which, like intense 
darkness, can be felt. Around Halifax and other 
places, there are a few varieties of " cockyoly" birds, 
as small birds are called, but in the recesses of. the 
forest there are none. About the lakes and the small 
woodland streams, there come out in the grey even- 
ings, the ghostly night-hawks, but there is something 
bat-like in their flight, and singularly unlike the 
merry twittering denizens of our old country woods. 

In parts of the forest, hundreds of merry squirrels 
swarm on the trees, and the " mustelina" are well re- 
presented. Not a few snakes are to be met, some 
very pretty, and all harmless. But in the warm 
weather, the insect world become, especially to the 
angler, something too insupportable. Two species, 
the black fly and the moose fly, I will back against 
any other in the art of disfiguring the human face 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 73 

divine. I have seen many go on a fishing expedition 
in all their natural beauty, and come back in a few 
days swollen into hideous parodies on their former 
selves, and barely recognizable even to their vener- 
able and anxious mothers. There is only one thing 
worse, and that is a remedy sold under some such 
taking title as, the " Angler's Defence," by the phi- 
lanthropic chemists of Halifax, and which the angler 
is supposed to smear over his face as a protection 
against blood-thirsty insects. Some wear veils, and 
I have done so myself ; but in warm weather, I think, 
five minutes of a veil is, to a man, rather worse than 
the black hole of Calcutta. 

For this reason, and the easier travelling when the 
underwood is dead, I think the winter is best in the 
woods, and also the season in which they look to most 
advantage. The snow lying on the broad green 
spruce branches — however unpleasant for the locks of 
your gun should you come up against them — gives an 
air of fairy-land to the woods ; and the carpet of snow 
on which the trees rise proudly, falsifies one's idea of 
distance, and alters the perspective in a pleasing way, 
which keeps up the illusion. The chief trees one 
meets are the hemlock and pines of all varieties, 
maple, birch, beech, and the evergreen spruce — the 
true ornament of the American woods. 

The two species of partridge are abundant, as their 
market price will best testify. They are a stupid 
class of birds, and when one goes after them, you 
generally take a dog of the spaniel breed with a bell 
round his neck to keep you from losing him in the 
covers. As soon as the dog puts up a covey, they fly to 
a neighbouring tree, and remain there as if stupefied, 



74 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

while the dog, barking at its foot furiously, attracts 
his master to the game. They remain perfectly still, 
and are therefore shot sitting — rather an un-English, 
but at the same time inevitable proceeding. Indeed, 
if you commence with the birds sitting on the lower 
branches and shoot upwards, you may get rid of an 
entire covey, the birds waiting in that amiable man- 
ner which one had supposed to belong merely to that 
self-denying bird of nursery legends, which was ad- 
dressed invitingly, and as if with every confidence 
that the invitation would be readily accepted : 

Dilly dilly duck, come and be killed. 

The flesh of the partridge is white and rather dry, 
but eaten with bread sauce it is extremely good, es- 
pecially when cold. 

At one season of the year, when they eat some 
poisonous berry, one species is injurious as an article 
of food. Although, even then, I have heard, if the 
crop of the bird be cut out immediately after it is 
shot, the flesh is perfectly wholesome. I have heard 
of Indians in the woods knocking these birds over 
with a tomahawk. 

It is hardly necessary for me to enter into any de- 
tails on the subject of the sport afforded by the wild-fowl 
of Nova Scotia. This sport is much the same all the 
world over. On some lakes in New Brunswick, and 
I daresay in Nova Scotia also, although I cannot 
vouch for it myself, the artifice is employed of cover- 
ing the bows of a skiff with branches, and then 
gradually coming within shot of the deceived and un- 
conscious duck. They are generally in such numbers, 
that, rising in a perfect cloud, many fall victims to 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 75 

the same barrel. Wild geese are migratory, and, al- 
though they fly very high, there is no mistaking the 
outstretched necks and peculiar note as they pass over 
Halifax in immense numbers annually. They are so 
large, that they afford a sportsman great satisfaction 
as the heavy body comes tumbling down to his fire; 
but they are of a strong, fishy, and unpleasant flavour. 
I shall now devote the rest of this chapter to some 
words on the fishing of this province. There is hardly 
a stream, and never a lake, I imagine, in all the 
myriad lakes of this country, where fish do not abound. 
Where there is so great an abundance, it seems invi- 
dious to make choice of any particular lake or river 
in a chapter like this. On the spot of course one 
would be guided by the season of the year very much, 
some streams being earlier than others. For salmon, 
Gould River is a good place ; also Musquedoboit, and 
the runs between the Ship Harbour Lakes. For sea- 
trout, in my day, no place came up to Tangier Biver, 
but I fear the gold-diggings have spoiled the fishing 
there now. Very fine sea-trout used to be taken also 
at Musquedoboit, good sized, strong, and delicious- 
flavoured, and yielding the angler as much sport as a 
powerful young salmon. As for the common brown or 
lake trout, you may get them anywhere and every- 
where, and of all sizes. There are one or two places 
within an hour's walk almost of Halif ax, where one can 
take out a dozen trout of an afternoon, not very large 
perhaps, but very good in point of flavour. Imme- 
diately behind York Redoubt the angler found Pine 
Island Ponds, well known to every one who has been 
in the garrison of Halifax. And just across the north- 
west arm., buried in the woods, a small sheet of dark 



76 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

water, called Coal Pit Lake, was safe to yield to the 
sportsman some exquisite little trout, fit to make a 
breakfast for an epicure. But these places are mere 
child's play compared with Ship Harbour Lakes, where 
I have taken out, as fast as I could throw my fly, two 
at a time often ; and where in pulling across the lake, 
your fly, dangling on the water, without any exertion 
on your part, would be snapped at eagerly. I should 
say the trout of Nova Scotia are rather like the fair 
sex — capricious, and not insensible to gaudy colours. 
Some of the flies which are most successful on the 
Acadian lakes would make the steady-going Izaak 
Walton of Scotch or English streams stare rather by 
their brilliant hues. There can be no more useful 
accomplishment to the Nova Scotian angler than the 
ability to tie his own flies. The caprice of the trout 
already alluded to is so mysterious often and unac- 
countable, that a fly which one day they seem unable 
to resist, will be scouted by them next day under pre- 
cisely the same circumstances as regards weather and 
sun : therefore, unless one has the art of humouring 
their wayward fancies, there is every chance of the 
acquaintance of the angler and the angled becoming 
no closer than the occupation of their respective ele- 
ments will permit. 

Should it be necessary, the sportsman on the lakes 
and rivers has to use a camp as much as his brother 
on the plains or in the woods. But very often on ac- 
count of the greater number of settlements near the 
rivers and runs, one can manage always to sleep under 
a roof, a system which if not so pleasant in many 
things as camping out, has nevertheless its social 
advantages, and saves a good deal of trouble on a 
short excursion. 



SPORT IN EARNEST. 77 

The settlers are very hospitable, although rather 
primitive, and in their conversation more addicted to 
"guessing," and other Yankee amenities, than their 
brethren of the towns. I met with an appalling 
instance of their rural simplicity, when on a fishing 
exclusion in June 1858, on the Ship Harbour Lakes* 
As we contemplated a change of ground one day 
of about fifteen miles, we inquired of our landlord 
for the time being as to any probable settlement near 
our new destination, where we could be housed for 
the night. 

The name of a bachelor settler, living all alone, 
was given us, with instructions how we were to find 
his hut ; and starting after the evening's fishing, it 
was nearly midnight when we reached our new abode. 
After a good deal of hammering at the door (for 
settlers who work hard, sleep hard), we at last heard 
the fastenings being undone, and a figure with a 
light presented itself. The figure in question was 
of a huge man, about six feet three in height, clad 
lightly in some garment in which he seemed to have 
slept for many years, nor have dreamt of the necessity 
of washing it. His hair was reddish, very long, and 
wildly dishevelled; and his features — as far as they 
were not drowned with an expression of amazement — 
seemed more remarkable for the absence of intellect 
than its presence. In answer to the inquiries of my 
companion and myself (there were but two of us), he 
led us into the kitchen with noises, which he may 
have intended to mean welcome, but which resem- 
bled the barks a clog would give, under the united 
depressing influences of croup and a muzzle. On the 
large hearth the logs of wood were still smouldering, 
and were soon made up into a cheerful fire : and then 



78 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

we made inquiries as to our bed. He scratched his 
unkempt head a good deal, and at last showed us into 
a room with a bed, from which he had evidently just 
risen. We protested against taking his own couch, 
but he insisted; and imagining he had plenty more 
in the house, and gave us his own as the best, we 
dragged in our rugs and buffalo robes, shut the 
door, and proceeded, according to custom, to toss for 
the bed, the unsuccessful one making a shakedown of 
the rugs, <&c, on the floor. Having settled this 
knotty point, we were making ready for our respec- 
tive resting-places when the door opened, and in 
walked our host himself, still clad in his mediaeval 
night-shirt, and nothing more. 

While we paused to learn his errand, he scratched 
his head, smiled an imbecile smile, and gave utter- 
ance to the following words : 

" I guess I'll have to sleep with yez, myself." 
Horror, grim, ghastly horror, rushed through our 
brains, and rendered us speechless for a time; but 
recovering ourselves, we hastened to assure him that 
had we known it was his only bed, we would never 
have dreamt of taking it ; that we would lie down in 
front of the kitchen fire ; that we preferred, sleeping 
before the kitchen fire ; indeed that from infancy we 
had lived with no other object but that of sleeping 
before the kitchen fire. 

And, not to forfeit my reader's esteem, and my own 
self-respect, I may add, that we did sleep before the 
kitchen fire. 



79 



CHAPTER V. 

NOVA SCOTIA. 

Green Acadian meadows, with sylvan rivers among them, 
Village, and mountain, and woodlands. 

Longfellow's Evangeline. 

Nova Scotia, as the Province once called Acadia 
is pedantically named, is a colony of which it may be 
safely predicated that its future will greatly surpass 
its present or its past. And yet there is in the past 
of this province something which we seldom meet in 
the past of our colonies. There is a history. Nova 
Scotia is to our other colonies what Virginia, the Em- 
pire State, was, in the days of union, to the United 
States. We hear of this little country in the es- 
cutcheons of many of our English baronets, and not 
a few of our proudest peers ; we read in dry works of 
history, as well as the sweet lines of Longfellow, of 
times there of war, and sieges, and sorrow, and exile. 
We trace in the remnant of a former people, still 
existing in their fathers' happy home, and more pleas- 
ingly in the orchards, and quaint farm-houses, and 
dyked fields of its fairest counties, the story of the 
days when not England, but France ruled here; 



80 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

France, whose colonial history is one of such singular 
discomfiture and defeat. We stumble on the ruined 
battlements of Louisburg, which remind us of the 
wars which brought about this change of govern- 
ment ; and as we travel through the province, we can 
read a disconnected, but intelligible history in the 
names of its counties and its towns. And it is a 
species of history which it pleases the Englishman to 
dwell on, reminding him of stirring times in the 
annals of his own country across the sea; times 
which rise forcibly before his memoiy as he comes 
upon names like Annapolis, Amherst, Cornwallis, 
and Halifax. 

But this history has been written by one who is a 
master of the art. It is not for a novice to follow 
where he has trod. It shall be for me rather to glance 
at this province as I have seen it with the bodily eye, 
not the eye of study. But how to begin : here, I 
find, lies the rub of authorship. It is like taking up 
a ball of tangled worsted, of which one cannot find 
the ends. It is like being ushered into a large library, 
and not knowing what to choose for perusal. It is, to 
come from the sublime to the ridiculous, like getting 
a dozen newspapers by one mail, or a budget of unin- 
teresting letters by the same post, and being at a loss 
with winch to commence. Or, it is like getting a 
bundle of new summer patterns from your tailor, each 
of which by itself would make a sweet thing in 
trousers, but which in the aggregate only bewilder. 
And I have increased my confusion by having de- 
voted a chapter to the capital of the province already ! 
so I am driven, like a beaten ministry, to the country, 
and like an unpopular member, I do not know what 



NOVA SCOTIA. 81 

seat I shall choose in the hope of election. I re- 
member once getting a fortnight's leave, Avith the in- 
tention of making a visit to some country friends. 
When on the eve of starting, I got a telegram, an- 
nouncing the sudden and dangerous illness of one of 
the household, and, consequently, postponing my visit. 
What was I to do ? It was against my principles to 
give up my leave ; and I had no particular choice in 
the matter of lions, watering-places, or towns. The 
metropolis had gone to the country ; and being quar- 
tered within a few miles of it, it seemed hardly worth 
while to go there on an excursion. I was at my wit's 
end. I had no sooner thought of one place, than 
another rose in an alluring garb, claiming my wan- 
dering allegiance ; and I was like a weathercock at a 
season when Admiral Fitzroy has prophesied, " Un- 
certain winds from all quarters." Suddenly, I be- 
thought me of the way the people of old consulted 
the oracles by putting their finger blindly on a verse 
of the Bible, or a line of Virgil ; and I rushed for 
Bradshaw. Procuring this interesting volume — which, 
in point of being difficult to understand, is equal to 
the most mysterious utterance that ever came from 
Delphi — I opened it by chance at a certain page, re- 
solving to limit my choice to the places that might 
there be found. I selected a station whose name ended 
in "Abbey," naturally imagining that where there Was 
an abbey, there must be something to see ; and in two 
hours I had taken my ticket. You can have no idea 
how I enjoyed that trip : the excitement as I ap- 
proached the place ; the anxiety to see what it looked 
like ; the ignorance of the name of any hotel in it ; 
and the charming sensation of not knowing a soul 



82 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

when I got there. I was referred to an inn rejoicing 
in the name of the " Four Swans," which has always 
appeared to me the most unaccountable name for an 
inn, except one in a village, near which I am writing 
this chapter, which is called the " Five Bells." But, 
in spite of the name, I found my ornithological hotel 
a cosy and charming residence ; I took mine ease in 
mine inn in a way which cannot be comprehended by 
us in these days of mammoth railway palaces, where 
you lose your identity, and become No. 20. In my 
little inn I was that important individual, u the gen- 
tleman in the parlour," whose bell was never left un- 
answered; whose dinner was never somebody else's 
rechauffe, nor a cut off a lukewarm joint ; and whose 
bedroom was a perfect museum of cosy relics of our 
ancestors, which, even though unused, make one feel 
comfortable; such, I mean, as warming-pans and 
miraculous samplers, covered with the genealogy of 
my landlady's family, with a sprinkling of the moral 
maxims under w T hich she had been brought up in the 
way she should go, and all concluding with the Eoman 
numerals. 

And the little place itself was so quaint and pretty, 
and the people so obliging, that my fortnight passed 
as if it had wings, and my sorrow was as great at 
leaving as my bill was moderate. 

Can I appeal to some such chance to aid my selec- 
tion now % And if I do, shall I give my readers the 
same satisfaction that I gave myself on the occasion 
referred to? I doubt it much, and gravely. Let 
me think but once again : ah ! I have it ; of course ! 
how could I have been so stupid ? of course I must 
begin with the people of the province. 



NOVA S.COTIA. 83 

I have polished off the French Acadians in a 
chapter which I have written before this, but which 
my reader will not see until he or she has read the 
present one; so beyond mentioning the fact that 
there are a few of this people still in the province, 
I shall proceed to enumerate as the other distinctive 
classes of the community, the Indians, Highlanders, 
Germans, a great many Irish, and the balance Eng- 
lish and Scotch. 

The Indians are getting fewer every day, and more 
degenerate. They are not a long-lived race, and are 
subject to many diseases, consequent on their habits 
of life. They receive from the Government a blanket 
annually, and, I believe, one or two other advantages, 
such as the liberty to shoot game for their own use 
at any season of the year. They are, generally speak- 
ing, Roman Catholics, and they may be seen in con- 
siderable numbers, on any solemn day in the church 
of Rome, hanging about the doors of the Catholic 
places of worship in Halifax. They belong to the 
^lie-mac tribe of Indians, once a very powerful one, 
but now becoming gradually extinct. The squaws 
are very skilful in the fabrication of different articles 
of fancy-work, in which the quills of the porcupine 
and highly coloured glass beads form a predominant 
feature. They also earn a good deal by making 
moccasins, and torches for lobster-spearing ; indeed, 
the squaws show to their lazy lords a praiseworthy 
example of industry. They always live in wigwams, 
on the roadside often, leading a life, in some respect, 
like our own gipsies ; and can be easily recognised by 
their high cheek bones, their swarthy complexion, 
and long black hair. The males generally wear 
g2 



84 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

blanket coats, and always moccasins. The squaws 
usually wear a species of bead-work head-dress, in 
addition to the usual dress of civilised women, and 
carry their papooses on their backs in the way fami- 
liar to everyone from pictures. Their small camps 
generally contain, in addition to other objects, one or 
more canoes, of the . making of which they have a 
monopoly, and in the management of which, both 
men and squaws, are great adepts. One of the 
amusing; incidents in the Halifax regattas is the 
canoe race; and the squaw's race is perhaps more 
so. They talk in a low, soft, and not unmelodious 
manner, with little gesticulation. Their besetting sins 
are drunkenness, filth, and a proneness to lying. 
• I have made a distinction between the Highlanders 
and Scotch, because there is a very considerable com- 
munity in Nova Scotia, particularly in Cape Breton, 
now a part of this province, who talk nothing but 
Gaelic. It is singular to find this body of Highlanders 
(chiefly from the west of Scotland) so far from their 
native land, but so retentive of its language and cus- 
toms. I was told by a fellow-traveller, that he met 
an old woman in the Hebrides, who had spent nine 
years in Nova Scotia, and yet was unable to speak a 
word of English. The characteristics of this conser- 
vative people are too well known to require any com- 
ment. 

The same may be said of the Germans, who are 
to be found in considerable numbers all over the 
province. Their head-quarters are at a town called 
Lunenburg. At the time of the American war of 
Independence, a great many Germans, naturally 
loyal to the House of Hanover, came from the States 



NOVA SCOTIA. 85 

to Nova Scotia; indeed, King George sent a ship-load 
of them, I believe, from Virginia. 

When at Ship Harbour in 1858, I met a German, 
of over ninety years of age, but in unclouded posses- 
sion of all his faculties, who came from Virginia at 
that time, and whose reminiscences of those stirring 
seasons were clear and most interesting. But I am 
not sure that Germans, although a contented and 
happy class of settlers, are a class calculated to benefit 
the early years of a colony, or increase its trade and 
agriculture, beyond the point at which their indivi- 
dual wants cease. 

I need hardly say that in this, and all our colo- 
nies, the Irish is a prominent and unsettled element. 
Some of their good qualities, and many of their bad, 
seem to be fostered by their change of life ; and 
while often active and useful citizens, they are not 
the best stamp of men for settlers, or labourers on a 
small scale. For an Irishman seems to imbibe politics, 
and the love of them, with his mother's milk ; and 
once in a country, where he has the power of giving 
a vote — perhaps for an alderman — perhaps for a 
Member of Parliament, you upset that man for the 
practical duties of life. As long as he can exercise 
this long-wished-for privilege, and proclaim his devo- 
tion to Erin by occasional triumphal processions and 
green banners, which he could have shown better 
when " on the sod " himself by a little attention to 
his labour, and you will find him quite happy, should 
he remain for ever a hired labourer on a weekly 
wage. It seems so great a pity, that this should be 
true of Irish emigrants, who are a merry, good- 
hearted, and affectionate class, and in their religion a 



SQ OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

devout body ; but it is the case with an Irish cottar 
or labourer, if you place on one side labour, comfort, 
and prosperity; and on the other politics, the chance 
of a row, and a hand-to-mouth living, you will find 
the latter will carry the day. Of course these re- 
marks do not apply to the upper and better educated 
classes ; they are to be found in the first ranks, both 
in politics, literature, the learned professions, and 
trade. But even in their case, there is an absence of 
the "cosmopolitan" which you find in the English 
settler ; and in every class and station, the Irish settler 
has his nationality as distinct as the German or the 
Gael. 

The English portion of the Nova Scotians includes 
the descendants of the oldest settlers ; men who came 
from England with the Puritans, and all who came 
under the noble title of loyalists, from the United 
States at the Declaration of Independence. I wonder 
a theme so noble as this has not been selected for some 
work of poetry or romance ; for there are none so 
worthy of immortality — so far as our poor histories 
can confer it — as those who would and did give up 
a home and happy associations to come to a strange 
and, it might be, bleak and inhospitable land, and 
all for loyalty to a sovereign whom they had never 
seen, but whose crown was the centre in which they 
and their brethren of the old country met, under the 
proud name of Britons. 

The Scotch portion of the community are almost 
equally faithful to their nationality and then' country's 
customs as the Irish. They are best defined as a 
singularly respectable constituent of the Nova Scotian 
people — an adjective after a Scotchman's own heart. 



NOVA SCOTIA. 87 

So much for the people ; now for then' internal 
government. In old times, before Reform was heard 
of, Nova Scotia was governed by a governor in 
council. This council consisted, I think, of twelve 
members, all men of approved honesty and position, 
and with a stake in the province sufficient to ensure 
their looking after its interests. 

But this simple and almost patriarchal form of 
government — a form which has always seemed to 
me particularly adapted to our infant and smaller 
colonies — was rudely torn asunder, and the poor 
country was presented with that dreadful eidolon, 
representative government. If the province could 
have spoken, it would have said : " Save me from my 
friends," or " Timeo Danaos et dona f erentes ;" but a s 
it could not, it remained silent, while the people com- 
menced, one half to amuse themselves like children 
with a new toy, the other and more sensible half to 
make the best of a bad job. There are two pictures 
in old numbers of Punch which always remind me of 
the giving representative government, with all its 
forms and follies, to unhappy little nations, like those 
of Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, and New 
Brunswick. The best was a sketch of Lord Palmer- 
ston receiving Lord Clyde, after the mutiny in India 
was crushed, and being at the same time presented 
with a fine Bengal tiger, allegorical of that presidency. 
Backing behind a chair, the Premier mutters his 
thanks, but exclaims : 

u How about keeping the brute 1" 

"With, some such feeling must the respectable and 
property-owning part of our colonists have received 
the gift of representative government. And their 



b& OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

worst fears have been realised. No apple of dis- 
cord could have been devised more certain to set a 
peaceable and happy community by the ears. And 
its existence has given birth to a class which could 
not exist in a country rich enough and old enough to 
be ready for self-government. I mean the class of 
professional politicians, men to whom to be in office is 
luxury, to be on the opposition benches is beggary. 
iVnd need I say a word on the fearful temptations to 
a politician such a state of affairs must beget ? It is 
unfair alike to the man and to his country. 

It is, too, reasoning on utterly false principles to 
imagine that every colony should at once be made 
self-governing. It has taken England a good many 
centuries, and a heavy discipline of blood and adver- 
sity, to produce our present system of government. 
Is there, then, to be no youth, no time of preparation 
in our colonies? It has taken us a long time to 
prove certain mathematical truths, but we do not 
hesitate to make our youth go through, as a whole- 
some discipline, the processes of reasoning by which we 
laboured out what, if we chose, we might tell them, 
as axioms. And, although God forbid that we should 
drag our colonies through the stern lessons of blood 
and rebellion, as a preparation for self-government, 
yet there are preliminary stages which it behoves a 
country, as an individual, to traverse. It does not 
give a young colony fair play to cut the leading 
strings too soon, even although like a spoiled or pre- 
cocious child, it should cry out to be released from the 
parental authority. 

And it is unfair to the wealthy few who have a heavy 
stake in the country, to raise, by a system of virtually 



NOVA SCOTIA. 89 

universal suffrage, all and every, those whose stake 
may be nil, to an equality, as regards the administra- 
tion of government. 

Perhaps in these enlightened clays, when Bright 
and Cobden hail an approaching time of democratic 
revelling, and the ballot is hung, like the sword of 
Damocles, over the heads of honest, easy-going 
members, whose sole wish is to do their country 
goocl, it may seem antiquated and prejudicial to 
write as I have done. But I write from what I have 
seen. I reason from no theoretical premises, but 
from existing facts, and I know I am borne out by 
men far better able to judge than I am of the per- 
nicious results of our present colonial system. Witness 
one who, from a seat in one of our Australian Houses 
of Assembly, came to sit in our Imperial House of 
Commons; see what he said of representative go- 
vernment in our young colonies ; see what he thought 
of universal suffrage and the ballot. It is like setting 
children to play with edged tools; they cut them- 
selves, and they dull the blades they sport with. 
Liberty degenerates into license, and the politician has 
to pander to the interests, or inflame the passions of 
the voter, in order that he may rule him. 

And as representative government is meant for 
men, not for acres, it is no answer to say that the 
territory of even our smaller colonies exceeds that of 
many kingdoms in Continental Europe. The ridicu- 
lous fact remains, that we have for communities, not 
equal in number to the population of our third-rate 
towns, all the forms and ceremonies attending a 
House of Lords and a House of Commons. 

And, as in petty debating societies we find boys 



90 OUR GARRISONS EH THE WEST. 

passing solemn votes of censure on the conduct of 
countries they never saw, and politics they never 
studied, so we put in the power of these mimic par- 
liaments to censure with all the solemnitv of a mightv 
senate, acts of the Imperial Government, which they 
probably have traced to some non-existent cause. 
True, we have reserved the power of a " veto" to the 
sovereign ; but would a young colony, intoxicated by 
the excesses of self-government, yield without a mur- 
mur to such a prerogative ; would not its exercise be 
deemed despotic, and probably be resisted I 

And is it not a farce, that in colonies which we 
call English colonies and possessions, which we 
garrison at Imperial expense — as we ought, which we 
guard in war and give a prestige to in peace; is it 
not a farce, I say, that in these colonies the Imperial 
authorities, by giving them tins entire self-govern- 
ment, should place themselves in so false a position as 
to have to submit Imperial questions to them, if they 
relate however distantly to the colony, and run the 
risk of defeat too, as I have seen. It is outrageous ; 
we call it no breach of freedom, if. at home, an Act 
of Parliament rides rough-shod over the privileges of 
an individual, a city, or a county, because the good 
of the majority takes precedence of that of the 
minority. And such should be the state of things in 
our colonies, if they are to retain the title of English 
possessions. Let me give an instance which shows 
the evil results of this system of dual government. 

It is connected with the position of the British 
troops in Nova Scotia. As every one knows, thanks 
to iNlr. Goldwin Smith, these troops are paid wholly 
by the Home Government ; they receive not the 



NOVA SCOTIA. 91 

slightest colonial remuneration, although conferring a 
great benefit on the colony by the money they circu- 
late. At this I do not grumble ; we garrison Nova 
Scotia for Imperial purposes, and it is but just that 
we should pay for it. But I objeet to one arrange- 
ment. 

In Great Britain there is an allowance made to 
the troops, called Kegent's allowance, by which the 
officers' mess wines are cheapened. Now, in our 
colonies, this is not given, because — with the single 
exception, I believe, of Nova Scotia — the colonial 
authorities permit vane for the troops to enter duty 
free. And this was the case in Nova Scotia in the 
good old days of the Governor in Council. How- 
ever, being self-governing, the Nova Scotians have 
an undeniable right to regulate the taxation of their 
province, and further than regretting to see them 
guilty of so ungracious an act, one would say nothing 
were this all. But the fact is, that the Imperial 
Government have submitted proposals to and repre- 
sented, and wheedled the colonial parliament to con- 
tinue the old system, and have been systematically 
rebuffed : an instance of the evil arising from sepa- 
rating our colonies too far from the parent stem. 

And above all this, there is a gross injustice perpe- 
trated by the Nova Scotian Government in this 
matter : for they tax in this way the military, a portion 
of the community, which is unrepresented, and has no 
political rights in the province. 

So much for the evils existing : now for a remedy . 
If universal suffrage, as it virtually is in our colonies, 
must remain, then let property carry additional votes. 
It sounds very well to say that the poor man and the 



92 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

rich man have an equal stake in a country, because 
they each have their all ; but the legislation of those 
who have nothing to lose is very different from that 
of those who have much to forfeit. To the former, 
revolution and destruction of rights have not the same 
ghastly appearance as to the latter. To the former, 
laws which benefit the individual will have a popu- 
larity which will not be granted to a prudent, far- 
seeing legislation, whose tendency is to raise the 
commercial, agricultural, and political status of the 
country. And those who have little or no property 
will levy with great unction taxes on those who have 
much. To use the immortal words of Mr. Weller, 
" It's unekal, Sammy, it's unekal," as he used to say 
when his brandy-and-water was not half-and-half. 

But another remedy to apply might suggest itself 
in a way as flattering to our colonists as conducive to 
the suavity of our relations with them. Let them 
have some local form of legislation, but let them also 
have representatives in proportion to their population 
in the Imperial Parliament. If advisable, let each 
colony have an Under-Secretary of State to offer 
explanations concerning his province, and to attend to 
its rights. Above all, let nothing be spared in mode- 
ration, which, while giving the colonists all the privi- 
leges of a constitutional government, shall also tighten 
instead of severing those bonds which connect them 
with the parent country. 

One of the worst things in the Houses of Assem- 
bly in a small colony, is the paucity of questions of 
importance for discussion. The result is, that the 
time of the members is prostituted too frequently to 
trifling and personal debates, in which they do not 



NOVA SCOTIA. 93 

show to advantage in the eyes of their constituents ; 
and public works are carried to a height of jobber}-, 
if one is to credit the successive oppositions, which 
seems incredible. The railways of Nova Scotia, 
which are built by Government, not by a company, 
have, in addition to burdening the province with 
debt, furnished food for debates and inflammatory 
editorials, which, if collected, would equal in size a 
very large library. Now all this brings constitutional 
government down to a succession of storms in a 
saucer ; it is as if Macready or Kean were to act in 
some children's charades. And it tends to keep out 
of public life many men of talent and position, who 
are too sensitive to allow their private life to be as- 
sailed and laid bare. Yet it is wonderful to see the 
talent which one does meet in these Houses of Assem- 
bly, considering the difficulties which are thrown in 
their way. I have heard speakers in the Nova Sco- 
tian House of Assembly, who would hold the ear of 
our own House of Commons, even on a budget night ; 
and when hearing them I always felt a deep regret 
that talent such as theirs should have so circum- 
scribed a sphere of action ; for a mind cannot deal 
with petty matters for ever, without a danger of be- 
coming petty in its faculties. 

There is one hope for such men yet ; it is that all 
our American colonies may be united, and in a new 
House of Assembly wider and nobler subjects may 
call out the nobler minds — and in these minds call 
out the nobler faculties. May that day soon come. 

But I must leave this subject, into which I have 
been carried at greater length than I had intended. 
And in reading over what I have written, I am con- 



94 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

scious of an abruptness, and, so to speak, jerkiness of 
style, which generally accompanies one's opinions on 
subjects which have been strongly considered, and on 
which strong views are entertained. Should this irre- 
gularity of style displease the reader, let me hope that 
the sincerity of the writer, of which it is a symptom, 
will in some measure atone for it. 

I have spoken of the people and their government. 
Let me next allude cursorily to their towns. In ad- 
dition to Halifax, the metropolis, we have on the sea- 
coast Annapolis, Digby, Liverpool, Lunnenburg, 
Yarmouth, Guysboro', Windsor on the Avon near 
the sea, Pictou, and in Cape Breton we have Sydney. 
Of inland towns, Truro and Amherst are among the 
most important. Annapolis is what is called a royal 
city; and the general commanding the forces in 
the province draws a considerable salary as its go- 
vernor. 

Digby is situated on a pretty bay, and is celebrated 
for its trade in a small herring, known as the Digby 
chicken. Sydney is celebrated for its coal mines, 
which are very extensive ; but are not the only coal 
mines in Nova Scotia. If I remember right, it was 
in some coal mine in Nova Scotia proper, that Pro- 
fessor Dawson, the eminent geologist, found such ex- 
cellent fossils, particularly stigmaria and sigillaria. 
There are, in Cornwallis, two other pretty little 
towns, Wolfville and Kentville, the latter of which is 
situated in a hollow, and is painfully warm in sum- 
mer. I cannot recapitulate the names of all the 
little villages and towns in the province ; but in their 
appearance, and in the monotony of the lives of the 
inhabitants, there is a great similarity. With re- 



NOVA SCOTIA. 95 

gard to the former of these features, the houses are 
all of wood, painted white, and looking always clean 
and comfortable; the shops have as incongruous a 
medley in their windows as oiu 1 shops have in coun- 
try villages at home. There are always an abund- 
ance of churches in the little towns, of different deno- 
minations, but rather a scarcity of them in the thinly 
settled districts. I came upon a settler's family near 
a lake in the woods, who had been there some twenty 
years, without a church to attend within many many 
miles. Some of the children had been baptised by a tra- 
velling missionary ; and some were waiting for a similar 
chance. There is a dulness in these villages, which I 
presume the inhabitants do not feel, but which I 
confess weighed heavily on my spirits, when I had 
occasion to spend any time in them. Among others, 
I spent some days in Truro, at various times, and 
had opportunities of studying the life and idiosyn- 
crasies of the inhabitants. Beino; a terminus of one of 
the lines of Nova Scotian railway, there was a little 
more excitement in it than in most others ; but, as 
far as I remember, the following was the routine 
pursued daily by the male inhabitants ; and as the 
town is built in a square, in which the hotel where 
I was staying, and its neighbour the post-office, occu- 
pied a prominent position, I had excellent opportuni- 
ties of studying their proceedings. After a little 
badinage among themselves in the early morning, 
they adjourned regularly en masse to meet the first 
train from Halifax. This must have been a more 
exhausting process than it looked, for the next pro- 
ceeding was invariably to adjourn to the bar of my 
hotel for refreshment. There they remained until 



OG OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the letters were sorted at the post-office, when each 
secured his own. Every one got a penny daily paper, 
which, according to his politics, was the Mommy 
Chronicle or British Colonist, or any of the many 
issued in the metropolis ; and I observed with amaze- 
ment that all the letters were enclosed in yellow en- 
velopes. This is the token, generally, of a bill in 
Nova Scotia ; and I speculated as to whether Truro 
subsisted on credit, or had an accumulation of back 
debts unpaid. The time, until the arrival of the 
second train, was spent in digesting the news ; and on 
their return the second time from the station, they 
congregated to fight the political battle in person, 
varying the performance with constant refreshments. 
The food at the Nova Scotian inns is good, but mo- 
notonous; being on the "Touj ours perdrix" system. 
One day you had roast lamb and boiled fowl ; next 
day, boiled lamb and roast fowl ; and so on, da capo. 
I w T as particularly amused with the waitress at one of 
the country inns, where I staid some ten days, and had 
the everlasting bill of fare. She was a sort of gene- 
ral slavey; made the beds, cooked the dinner, and 
then, putting on a large collar of glass beads and 
bugles (the only change in her costume, but in her 
eyes I have no doubt a gorgeous livery), she brought 
our food up and attended on us. But her attitude, 
and the look on her face before uncovering, were 
most ridiculous ; she looked as if defying you to 
guess what new delicacy there was to-day, just as if, 
from knowing yesterday's dinner, you did not too 
well know to-day's. Have you ever seen the cun- 
ning look of a thimblerigger, as he defies a bumpkin 



NOVA SCOTIA. 97 

to tell under which thimble the pea is? Then if 
so, you know the expression of my waitress friend in 
Acadia. 

Amherst is a pretty little place, and I should like 
to have seen more of it. I was so unfortunate as to 
pass through it three times at midnight, when going 
overland to New Brunswick, so I could not judge 
much of its merits or deficiencies. The only time I 
passed through it by daylight, I was more struck by 
the abundance of turkeys in the fields round the 
town, than by anything I saw in it ; because, if I re- 
member right, I was prompted by a keen appetite to 
devote the greater part of the time at my disposal 
to a substantial meal in the hotel. 

This same overland journey to New Brunswick 
from Halifax, which is the only route one can take 
in winter, owing to the impossibility of keeping up 
the summer steam communication between Windsor 
and St. John, is a novel and not unromantic style 
of travelling. You go as far as Truro by train, and 
then, after dining, you mount a large sleigh, and make 
yourself as comfortable and warm as an abundance 
of public buffalo robes and your own private "wraps 
will admit of. Should the weather look unsettled, you 
will find a double-sized spirit-flask a great advantage. 

The journey by daylight is same enough ; it is at 
night that the novelty of the position asserts itself. 
Particularly is this the case after leaving Amherst 
which one does about two o'clock in the morning, 
exchanging a blazing fire and cheerful room for a 
dark, freezing night, an open sleigh, and a number of 
fellow -passengers, wrapped up to an extent that makes 
them look mammoths, not men. 

H 



98 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Shortly after reaching Amherst, I think you come 
on the wide, bleak marsh of Tantamara, which, in the 
darkness, looks like a level white and trackless plain, 
across which it seems impossible that any living coach- 
man could steer living horses. Should you get off 
the track, or come upon a drift across the road (such 
as you often find, many feet deep), the male pas- 
sengers have frequently to get out, and tread down 
the snow in front of the horses, to enable them to 
move on. But before Amherst and Tantamara, you 
come to the Cobequid mountains, the crossing of which 
is an exciting and laborious task. The sharp turns in 
the road; the dark forest through which the road 
seems like a white and waving thread ; the utter and 
deathlike silence, save the noise of our own horses' 
bells ; the absence of any signs of human habitation 
until you reach the summit of the mountain, where 
there is a small house called Purdy's, where you change 
horses; all this impresses you most forcibly, and I 
found acted as a certain antidote to sleep. But Purdy's 
itself is the most charming little house I ever met in 
my travels ; not from any architectural or luxurious ap- 
pliances, but solely from its idea of what constitutes 
a good fire. I never saw such fires as always are to be 
found there ; the fireplace itself is as large as a good- 
sized parlour, and it is piled with perfect trunks of trees, 
round which the flames wander merrily, and the red 
sparks ascend in clouds to a chorus of crackling 
which is as sweetest music to the half -frozen travellers. 

I used to wonder what a Parisian housekeeper 
would say on seeing such a fire, contrasting it with his 
high-priced and miserable little fagots. We rushed to 
it on arriving, toasted ourselves thoroughly, and hung 



NOVA SCOTIA. 99 

up our wraps to be thoroughly warmed while we 
should be at our supper. This meal being soon an- 
nounced by our landlady, whose merry face was a 
counterpart of the ruddy fire for cheerfulness, we 
would attack it with relish, first pouring into our tea 
— which, as a matter of course in Nova Scotia ac- 
companied our supper — a couple of teaspoonfuls of 
brandy to keep the night-air out ; no bad precaution, 
I can tell you, Father Mathew. By the time we had 
finished, we could hear the sounds of the horses' bells, 
as the sleigh was being got ready ; and putting on 
our smoking coats and comforters, pulling down our 
ear-flaps, giving another warm to our toes, and, per- 
haps, fighting a congenial pipe, we would go out into 
the night, and mount mto our seats with as great 
comfort as if by our bedroom fire. 

The amount of caloric we laid in at Purdy's lasted 
us the whole of the next stage ; and as a general rule, 
after looking veiy fiercely awake for half an hour, we 
would commence nodding, and soon be in a sweet, 
unconscious sleep. This would be disturbed by the 
sudden stoppage of our sleigh at Amherst, and by 
finding our head in the pit of our opposite neigh- 
bour's stomach. Our next stage would be Sackville, 
an micomf ortable halting-place, and at Dorchester we 
would breakfast ; but to compare Purdy's with Dor- 
chester, would be to compare Hyperion with a satyr, 
After breakfast, we would trot merrily on to Monck- 
ton, a station on the New Brunswick railway ; but, 
compared with the night, daylight and every thin g 
seemed flat and tame ; our fellow-passengers were 
cross, our venerable noses blue, and our feet cold. 

A propos of the railways of Nova Scotia, I must 
h2 



100 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

say that there is a Scotch proverb which exemplifies 
the relations between them and the province, namely, 
the proverb relating to " Muckle cry, and little woo'." 
There is a little over a hundred miles of railway in 
the province, but owing to some cause which is unin- 
telligible to an outsider, and many less important 
reasons, which are easily understood, this undertaking 
has burdened the province with a heavy debt, and 
consequently heavy taxation, while it has irritated 
opposing politicians, and been a cause of deferring — 
perhaps for ever — many important acts of local legis- 
lation. The primary error, undoubtedly, was the 
making it a Government work, instead of leaving it 
to a company. Heavy sums raised at six per cent 
on provincial debentures, make sad havoc with the 
revenue of the country. And the next great error — 
patent to all — is the custom too prevalent in our 
colonies under the system of representative govern- 
ment, of changing every official, however petty, at 
every change of government. Ruinous as this system 
has always proved in the United States, it bids fair 
to be equally so in our colonies ; for no greater mis- 
take can be committed than to displace an official as 
soon as he is perfect in his duties, merely because 
another party than that which appointed him comes 
into power, who have other objects for their patronage. 
I am afraid, however, that unless some change is made 
in the law or in human nature, things will remain as 
they are ; for however sensible the opinions of a party 
on such matters may be when in opposition, they 
undergo a woful change when in office. 

The evil effects of the present system are palpable 
in the generally inefficient way in which the lines are 



NOVA SCOTIA. 101 

worked. For slow rate of progression, I think the 
Nova Scotian lines of railway are as bad as the Grand 
Trunk, and I can say no worse ; while for indifferent 
accommodation at the stations, and for want of taste 
in the route selected, I think, in Yankee phraseology, 
they whip the world. I am led also to believe by the 
statements of successive governments on taking office, 
that the roads and the rolling stock are neglected and 
starved, in order that the returns of revenue and ex- 
penditure may appear favourable to the public. 

Leaving the railways, let us go to the shipping of 
the province. This is in a fair way of becoming very 
extensive, and should the threatened separation of the 
Northern and Southern States take place, I have no 
doubt that a great part of the carrying trade of 
these countries will fall to Nova Scotia. Ship-build- 
ing, if I may judge by recent journals, is making a 
rapid progress, and the vessels built are of no despicable 
tonnage. Steam communication is kept up between 
Nova Scotia and England, as well as the United 
States, Bermuda, Newfoundland, Prince Edward's 
Island, and New Brunswick ; and sailing packets run 
regularly between the province and the States, as 
well as New Brunswick, and, during the seasons, Eng- 
land, Malaga, and the West Indies. The fish trade 
of Nova Scotia, although injured by our treaty with 
the States, is still very extensive, particularly with the 
West Indies. A good many coasting vessels are em- 
ployed in the coal trade, and the coal brought from 
Sydney is of a very fair quality, although inferior to 
English coal. 

There is a considerable trade from Prince Edward's 
Island to Halifax in potatoes and oysters ; and be- 



102 OER GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

tween Cornwallis and the States in potatoes and fruit. 
A system of agricultural exhibitions — patronised by 
the government, and well attended — bids fair to raise 
the agriculture of the province to a much higher po- 
sition than it now occupies. 

But there are many bleak and rocky districts in 
Nova Scotia which forbid the softening hand of the 
agriculturist, and which can never be wrinkled by the 
toiling plough. Here, what nature has refused in one 
respect she has made up in another ; and the mineral 
riches of Nova Scotia may form a more brilliant, if 
not a more valuable feature in her future career, than 
the slow and sure riches of agriculture. 

The Nova Scotian gold mines are now very exten- 
sively worked, and although accounts vary as to their 
remunerative qualities, there is a strong evidence in 
their favour in the numerous companies and private 
speculators at work in every direction. On this sub- 
ject, however, the best information can be obtained 
readily from the provincial authorities — so dry details 
may be spared in a work like this. But there are 
other mineral sources of wealth, which, if not so 
fascinating, are no less real and important. Coal, 
limestone, grindstone, granite, even marble, are items 
which are welcome on a nation's capital account : and 
in addition to amethysts there are rumours, approach- 
ing certainty, of other precious stones being found 
throughout the province. In some of the small rivers 
of Comwallis, pearls are found, although I believe not 
in sufficient quantities to entitle the dealings in them 
to be called a trade. 

But as, to people hi England, it is the agricultural — 
not the mineral — wealth of Nova Scotia which is un- 



NOVA SCOTIA. 103 

known, I must recur before concluding to that point. 
There is land, and there is climate in Nova Scotia, 
equal to the best at home ; and what is equally im- 
portant, there are plenty of markets. For the capi- 
talist there are certain returns in the farms of many 
parts of the province ; and for the labourer there is 
no lack of high wages. And what Nova Scotia needs, 
and needs badly, is an influx of capital and of skilled 
labour. Not a speculative capital, but such as will be 
sunk in the province, and will do it and the capitalist 
both good ; and not a supply of needy and ignorant 
workmen, but of artizans and stout-limbed farm 
labourers. With the internal resources of Nova 
Scotia properly worked, and the fisheries maintained 
at their present height, there would be bright days in 
store for its inhabitants. 



104 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 

Nought but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grandpre. 
***** 

Still stands the forest primeval, but under the shade of its branches 
Dwells another nation with other customs and language. 

I make no apology for asking my reader to step 
aside from the observation of more practical matters, 
to the contemplation of a scene which the genius of 
a living poet has rendered hallowed ground. 

It is the proud gift of poetic talent to animate with 
its own fire, and render sacred by the power of its 
own associations, even dull, uninteresting localities, 
and ignoble and miserable subjects. But when the 
theme it selects to adorn, and to paint in glowing 
verse, and in undying colours, is one aided by a back- 
ground of natural beauty, and by a tale of gallant 
endurance and unmerited suffering, then, indeed, 
poetry speaks to the heart of man more surely than 
the most impassioned direct appeal, and inspires every 
little relic, whether of scenery or history, belonging to 
the subject, with a value such as hovers over the 



IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 105 

memorials of a lost friend, the toys and garments of 
a dead child, the letters and sayings of a lost love ! 

I know no poem which more readily reached the 
hearts of all classes of readers, than the beautiful 
one of Evangeline. It does not owe an adventitious 
success to its peculiar metre ; for in English verse the 
hexameter is an unwieldy and halting rhyme. It 
owes all to the plaintive beauty of the story, and to 
the simple mode in which the poet tells it. Its heroes 
and heroines are humble, their only nobility being 
that derived from their sufferings, but there is no in- 
consistency in the description of their lives and lan- 
guage, and the very similes of the poet are borrowed 
from the scenery and every-day circumstances, amid 
which, not he himself, but the subjects of his poem 
dwelt. And yet what analogies could be more simply 
beautiful, or more successful in their appeal to a 
reader's fancy? Take, for instance, that beautiful 
illustration of the farmers' lives in the opening of 
the poem : 

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands, 
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven. 

It is a marked feature of the best poets of our day 
—Tennyson, Longfellow, and also in a high degree 
the author of a " Life Drama," that they shower over 
their poems, like gold-dust, a sprinkling and abund- 
ant supply of images borrowed from the scenes 
of nature in the midst of which their own and 
their readers' lives are spent. And as it is too com- 
mon with us to leave to posterity the task of ana- 
lyzing the poetry of our age, and of marking its 
idiosyncrasies, one can picture the fond students of 
these poets learning — owing to this their characteris- 



106 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

tic — that not merely to sing of men and arms lias 
the Genius of Poetry come among men, but to paint 
with undying tints the every-day life of a people in 
all their little joys and sorrows, while showing side by 
side all the beauties in their rivers and woodlands which 
charmed them, with all the domestic habits which 
ruled them. Thus shall we see return, even in these 
practical ages, something akin to the manners of old, 
when poetry was the vehicle in which history descended 
to succeeding generations, or when it wandered about 
with aged minstrels and hoary harpers alike into the 
halls of the great, and the cabins of the poor. 

There is always something sad in the dispersion of 
a people or a family. There is a melancholy cadence 
in the words of Scripture, " The land that knoweth 
them now, shall know them again no more for ever." 
Even in applying these words to the case of a family 
leaving their native land for a far one with a certainty 
of bettering their condition, it still sounds mournful ; 
for there are ties between us and the land of our 
birth which sit lightly, until strained by absence, or 
tightened to irksomeness by circumstances which for- 
bid return. But whe#, as in the story of Evangeline, 
we see a simple people warned at a short notice to 
leave the land of their birth, and that land so fair ; 
to abandon their happy homes with all their primitive 
household gods ; and, what to a simple people is more 
trying than all, to forsake their dead, and leave their 
ashes to sacrilegious hands ; and all this for the 
stern prospect of strange lands and poverty — ah ! 
then the poetry secures our warmest sympathies, and 
every step in the tale, every scene associated with 
their sufferings, becomes as it were our own, and is 






IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 107 

classified with everything we prize or feel for most 
strongly. 

The beautiful village of Grandpre ! To be near it, 
the place read of so many thousand miles away in the 
long winter evenings, until our fancy had rebuilt it 
in our minds, sometimes with the old father blessing 
the children in the streets, sometimes as it was in that 
gloomy day of the mournful exodus to the sea-shore 
and the cruel ships. And yet to find, when close to 
it, that gaping peasants and ignorant shopmen stared 
as we asked for it, as if we had spoken in Greek ; or 
" guessed that they clid'nt know ; it war'nt to there- 
abouts." 

Quaintly does Bacon, in talking of the vicissitudes 
of things, say that after any great destruction at a 
place " it is further to be noted, that the remnant of 
people which hap to be reserved, are commonly igno- 
rant and mountainous people, that can give no account 
of the time past, so that the oblivion is all one, as if 
none had been left." And although there may be 
much of romance in the tale of Evangeline, and the 
historical value of the leading circumstances be some- 
what doubtful, still, coming to- the scene of what is 
among us hi England a household word, and finding 
it less familiar than to a Hindoo, would have been 
most depressing, had it not been aggravating. 

It was but the other day that, running over a col- 
lection of favourite poetical quotations, I found the 
great majority were culled from this identical poem ; 
and yet here, in the continent where Longfellow was 
born, within a few fields of where the opening scene 
of the poem is situated, to be greeted in answer to our 
eager inquiries with the open mouth and listless man- 



108 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

ner of stolid ignorance, did seem — perhaps unrea- 
sonably — somewhat hard to bear. 

And my ultimate informant was a Yankee skipper, 
who, like his countrymen when they travel, as they 
almost all do, had travelled to some purpose. It 
really makes one blush sometimes, in conversing with 
an intelligent Yankee, to find how much better they 
know the places of historical or other interest, even in 
one's own country, than oneself. And though it may 
be said, and often truly, that these Yankees merely 
do these sights, yet we do not even do that. 

Grandpre is, or rather was, on the left bank of the 
Avon, a small tidal river falling — if so small a river 
can be said to fall — into the Basin of Minas. The 
latter is more properly called the Basin of Mines, and 
in it rises the tall crest of Blomidon, a large island- 
mountain, whose rocky sides abound in amethysts. 

The Basin of Minas is merely an extremity of the 
Bay of Fundy, and like it, undergoes that enormous 
tidal influence so well known to physical geographers, 
and reaching to fifty or sixty feet. 

Windsor, the head-quarters of the tourist to Grand- 
pre, is a small, pretty town, also on the Avon, but 
more inland than the scene of Evangeline's expulsion ; 
it is now the terminus of a line of railway from Hali- 
fax, a little over forty miles in length, which commu- 
nicates with steamers from New Brunswick, plying 
about eight months in the year, and thus economising 
time and space to the traveller, in comparison with the 
overland route which is elsewhere described. If I 
remember right, the fare from Halifax to St. John, 
Xew Brunswick, by this route, is about twenty-six 
shillings sterling. 



IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 109 

Owing to the enormous ebb and flow in the river 
Avon, Windsor must be described as a startling place 
to an unprepared traveller. You arrive, perhaps, in 
the afternoon, and while dinner is preparing you go 
down to the wharves, a few paces from the door, and 
see a broad sheet of red, muddy water, a steamer un- 
loading with great bustle, schooners getting ready to go 
out with the tide, and every sign of commercial prospe- 
rity and maritime tumult. You then dine, spend an 
hour over the paper, adjourn to the bar, which in Ame- 
rica is the lounge for the male part of the community, 
and then while away another half -hour with your 
coffee or unpacking your portmanteau, until, catching 
a glimpse of a splendid moon through the window, you 
resolve on a cigar by the water-side. Away you go, 
strolling towards the wharf at which you saw the 
steamer — reach it; you stop in amazement and rub 
your eyes, for lo ! no steamers, no noise, no schooners, 
and above all, no water I You pinch your arm to 
see if you are in a dream ; but no, it gives you im- 
mediate evidence to the contrary ; so there you stand 
for a good half-hour, cigar in hand and forgotten, 
looking at a red field of mud sixty feet below you, 
and extending far on every side, with a little thread 
of water stealing down the centre, hardly broad 
enough to reflect the moon to your astonished 
vision ! 

Such being the case, it is a matter of no surprise 
that frequently, owing to fogs or head-winds, passen- 
gers on board the steamer losing one tide have to w T ait 
twelve hours in impotent anger beyond the river's 
mouth. And until modified by the introduction of 
new boats, I know few places where, even under 



110 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

favourable external circumstances, one could spend 
twelve hours to greater disadvantage. 

Let me go back a few years to my first weaiy 
night on that dreadful Bay of Fundy, and recal some 
of the discomforts of a venerable steamer which, thank 
heaven, is now affording state-cabins gratis to the 
dwellers at the bottom of the bay, who are in this 
respect more fortunate than their superficial brethren. 
Her name was the Creole, and in every respect was 
she out of place in those rough seas which are to be 
found generally between Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick. Let me see, too ; I think the creature had a 
history of some sort — had been a pirate, or was en- 
gaged in some Mexican expedition ; at all events, the 
steward made some such assertion in his communica- 
tive moments ; and to judge by the creaking and 
groaning of its aged timbers, the vessel seemed con- 
siderably distressed for the sins of its youth. I be- 
lieve that for years before she went down, people 
would have felt no surprise if the usual announce- 
ment in the journals of her sailing had been replaced 
by one to the effect that owing to her expected de- 
cease having come off at last, there would be no 
trip this week : so there was a spice of suspense and 
excitement in going on board her, which tended at 
once to relieve the monotony of the voyage, and to 
deepen the warmth and affection of one's adieux. I 
have been told that a class of brigs, which in old 
times carried the mails between Falmouth and Ame- 
rica, rejoiced in the soubriquet of "His Majesty's 
Coffins," and I am sure that this would have been no 
misnomer in the case of the Creole. In the moments 
during which the unhappy landsman is, by a wild 



IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. Ill 

stretch of fancy, supposed to be sweetly sleeping on 
board ship during a short voyage, he is too often 
listening, with not a little uneasiness, to the dull ham- 
mer of the waves against the two or three inches of 
plank which separates his pillow from the cold grey 
water, and on board the Creole there was no doubt 
about this being the constant occupation of every 
cabin occupant. 

The waves thundered against the crazy beams on 
which the tea-trays, called state-berths, were sus- 
pended, until you felt them give, and expected every 
moment the cold plash of water over your uneasy car- 
cass. I forget whether I was sea-sick or not that 
voyage ; but I remember attempting to partake of a 
meal on board. This may have been done as a cure 
for the malady, for constant stuffing is supposed, by 
some heathen, to be a remedy ; but whether it was so 
or not, of this I am sure, that even to a sound and 
healthy digestion, a meal on board the Creole would 
have acted as a most violent emetic. Down, far 
down, in a part of the vessel where nothing but rats 
and parboiled stewards could exist with comfort — in 
a cabin whose sides were lined with the berths of 
gentlemen in more or less advanced stages of illness, 
you saw, by the flickering light of a suspended lamp, 
the meal which was to entice your appetite or charm 
away your sufferings. And that meal ! Those cubic 
inches of steak, heated over and over again to suc- 
ceeding lots of passengers until no trace of their ori- 
ginal juiciness remained; those awful little dishes, 
containing about three sections of a potato, arranged 
as if to display in a concise form the more advanced 
stages of the potato disease; those warm, yellow 



112 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

squares of Indian meal-cake, whose appearance and 
taste so strongly resembled brown Windsor soap, that 
one expected every moment to see the assembled com- 
pany produce their razors and attack their neglected 
beards. The tea and coffee — Scylla and Charybdis, 
for you were allowed your choice of evils — and the 
horrible accompaniment to every meal served in Yan- 
kee fashion — eggs, in almost a raw state, beat up in a 
tumbler, as if for a pudding, by travellers of both 
sexes, and then, impregnated with pepper, swallowed 
wholesale. Who can give a just description of the 
horrors of the scene ? 

Away ! away to the cold deck, up that faithless, 
unsteady companion ; and now, like a dream, dreamed 
in bygone years, rises grey and slowly the picture of 
this first night on the tossing Bay of Fundy. Wrap- 
ping my plaid around me, and crouching on the stern 
of the vessel, I watched the heaving sea, and the dull 
leaden sky, where no star had yet hung out its silver 
lamp, and whence no ray of the moon had commenced 
to search in glittering path among the crests of the 
tumbling waves. Every now and then I would catch 
a glimpse of some bleak point of the shore, where, 
like champions held back from combat, the lowering 
rocks with, stately pride, scowl at one another over 
the restless waters. And like a ghost in the night- 
watches, out comes Blomidon the Mighty from his 
robe of mist, and more deeply darkens the sky 
before us, 

away to the northward, 

where, as Longfellow sings : 

Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic ! 



IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 113 

And so, after this circumlocution, we come back to 
it and Evangeline and Grandpre. 

Of course we do not expect to find the village of 
Grandpre now. We have not forgotten that wild 
description of the hour when 

Columns of shining smoke arose, and flashes of flame were 
Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the quivering hands 
of a martyr ! 

Such a day as this, as might well be described in 
the nervous language of Sallust : " Rapi virgines, 
pueros, divelli liberos a parentum complexu, matres 
familiarum pati quae victorious collibuissent, f ana atque 
domos spoliari, casclein, incendia fieri, postremo armis, 
cadaveribus, cruore atque luctu omnia compleri." 

But still, although desolation succeeded these happy 
homes, like wandering through the study or favourite 
haunts of a departed friend, one fain would linger 
among the fields where the village was, or by the 
shore of that bay where on that day of sorrow 

The ships with their wavering shadows were riding at anchor. 

Or, when the storm wind is up and blowing, one would 
fain hear in the voice of the turbulent waters, the 
same wail 

Which, with a mournful sound like the voice of a vast congregation, 
Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with the dirges, 
'Twas the returning tide that afar from the waste of the ocean, 
With the first dawn of the day came heaving and hurrying land- 
ward. 

The fields are green there now ; and the sea speaks 
the same ; and the story must linger in the poet's 
words, where the Acadians were not permitted to 
linger ; but the forest is gone, and the simple homes, 

I 



114 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

and the pure hearts. And hush ! as we look, the 
clouds part, and as of old to Evangeline — 

We see serenely the moon pass 
Porth from the folds of a cloud, and one star follow her footsteps. 
As out of Abraham's tent yonng Ishmael wandered with Hagar ! 

But the original Acaclians are not extinct even in 
Neva Scotia, then former home. Scattered in dif- 
ferent parts of the province, but not mingling with 
the English settlers, retaining their religion, their 
primitive manners, their picturesque costume made 
after the fashion of old Normandy, whence the 
French Acaclians originally came, they live a peaceful, 
subdued, and primitive life, then* men honest, then 
women singularly chaste. A good many are to be 
found in Annapolis county, and a small colony of 
theni live at Chezetcook, not far from Halifax. Any 
morning the Acadian women may be seen in the 
streets of the town with baskets of fruit, or knitted 
stockings or comforters, which they expose quietly for 
sale, without importunity or haggling. Their costume 
is a thick blue flannel petticoat, reaching to a little 
above the ankles (not a vestige of crinoline, ladies), 
a short blue jacket, a gaudy neckerchief tied bonnet- 
like over the head, thick woollen stockings, and heavy- 
soled shoes. Their manners and countenance are 
quiet ahnost to melancholy: and though the dark 
faces of their young women are often very beautiful, 
and the black eyes of all are bright and sparkling, I 
never saw anything approaching to coquetry among 
them. Indeed, as I have already mentioned, they 
always struck me as being a sad and subdued people : 
and if one could fancy a whole people dazed with 
some sorrow, as we so frequently see an individual, 



IN THE TRACKS OF LONGFELLOW. 115 

such a people does this French Acadian tribe seem to 
be. They are very much influenced by their priests, 
but I am glad to say that this influence is not turned 
to any evil political end. Their domestic habits, I 
am sony to say, are not of the cleanest, and too many 
crowd under one roof, as among the French Cana- 
dians ; but no impropriety of conduct, nor looseness 
of morals seems to result from their crowded homes, 
and the necessary mingling of the sexes. 

Among the districts surrounding Grandpre from 
Windsor to Horton, a distance of about twelve miles, 
there are many traces of the original French settlers. 
As in Canada, this is shown by the long lines of 
poplars, so in Nova Scotia they are to be traced by 
the abundance of orchards. From Windsor all round 
the shore to Annapolis through Cornwallis, we find 
these orchards at different points, and the high repu- 
tation for fruit which Nova Scotia has obtained is to 
be attributed chiefly to the original French settlers. 
To show the value of Nova Scotian fruit, I may 
mention an anecdote which was related to me. A 
gentleman hi Halifax anxious to get some remarkably 
good apples for some dinner, sent to the New York 
market, commissioning a friend in that city to procure 
him the very best, totally regardless of expense, but 
he stipulated that the place where the apples were 
grown which might be selected, should be mentioned 
to him on forwarding them. The friend complied 
with the conditions, and considering the numerous 
fruit-growing districts whose produce finds its way to 
the New York market, the Nova Scotian gentleman 
was both surprised and pleased to find that the apples 
12 



116 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

which bore off the palm, were grown in his native 
province, in the comity of Cornwallis. 

This little village, Horton, which I have mentioned 
as being in the district round Grandpre, is situated 
on the Basin of Minas, and is divided into Upper and 
Lower Horton. Not being so high up a river as 
Windsor, it is more convenient in many respects than 
the latter for embarkation. On one occasion, being 
anxious to cross the Basin of Minas on a sporting ex- 
pedition to Parrsboro', I found on my arrival at 
Windsor that the river was blocked up by ice, and 
that, therefore, the steamer could not enter. I was 
warned that my only chance was to drive on to 
Horton, which I did, and fortunately persuaded the 
proprietor of a small schooner to put me across. In 
later times, the little village of Horton was honoured 
by being made the port of embarkation for the Prince 
of Wales, when en route from Halifax to New Bruns- 
wick. 

It may not be uninteresting to some of my readers 
to learn, in connexion with the little town of Windsor, 
that in addition to its being the site of the university 
mentioned in another chapter, it was once on a time 
a garrison town, and even yet contains the remnant 
of an old blockhouse, dignified by the name of a fort, 
but now, like the skull of poor Yorick, " quite chap- 
fallen!" 

In Windsor, also, resided for some years the im- 
mortal Sam Slick ; indeed, the inn in which I stayed 
on my first visit, now succeeded by a mammoth rail- 
way hotel, was part of that comic judge's property. 



11' 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEW BRUNSWICK. 

Having been sent in command of a small detach- 
ment of artillery scattered over this province, I had 
opportunities of studying it thoroughly, and some of 
my impressions I propose giving in this chapter. 

New Brunswick is a larger, and in an agricultural 
point of view, a finer province than Nova Scotia; 
although the latter contains one county — Cornwallis 
— wealthier by its natural advantages than any part 
of the former. The distinctive superiority of New 
Brunswick lies in the size of its rivers, just as that of 
Nova Scotia lies in the splendour of its harbours. 
The chief rivers of the former are the St. John, the 
Restigouche, and the Nipisiquit; the first of these 
being navigable to steamers for more than one hundred 
miles from its mouth, and constituting, when frozen 
over in winter, a large natural highway, which opens 
up the resources of the country. The other two are 



118 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

more famous than it for the excellence of the fishing 
they afford, the tales of sport on them being almost 
incredible to those who, like most of us, consider a 
salmon or two a very good day's work. I knew one 
party of three rods — not very good sportsmen — who 
in one day took thirty-five salmon. The great value 
of rivers in a new country, is the facility they afford 
for bringing out of the interior the timber procured 
from the woods as they yield to the encroachments of 
the various clearings. The trade in this timber, or, 
as it is called, lumber, is one of the chief items of the 
entire trade of the province, and the harbour of St. 
John is surrounded by saw-mills, and wharves for 
loading vessels with deals. This harbour of St. John 
affords a melancholy instance of human discontent. 
For, be it known to my reader, this city is the com- 
mercial capital of the province, although not the seat 
of government, and between it and Halifax, the 
capital of Nova Scotia, there has always been a con- 
siderable emulation and rivalry. Being of much the 
same size, and within a short distance of one another, 
as distances go in America, the rivalry produces a 
little ill-feeling, fostered on both sides by the remarks 
of a thoughtless press. Now, to a disinterested indi- 
vidual, each city seems possessed of so many advan- 
tages perfectly different and peculiar to each, that 
quarrels seem out of place. But, instead of St. John 
being satisfied with the magnificent river at whose 
mouth it is situated, whose waters are equal to all the 
running waters of Nova Scotia together, they must 
needs claim credit for then harbour being equal to 
that of Halifax. This seems so ridiculous to one who 
has no personal feeling to gratify either way, that 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 119 

we hesitate whether to wonder most at the audacity 
of the New Brunswickers, or the folly of the Nova 
Scotians in condescending to argue the point. But it 
is often argued, and sometimes in the most ludicrous 
way. I remember, on one occasion, the people of 
Halifax invested in a steam-tug for the aid of their 
shipping. Owing to the width of their harbour, even 
at its mouth, this investment was somewhat super- 
fluous, for the largest vessel could beat in and out 
with ease ; and while the tide is far from strong, it is 
also unimportant, on account of the ample depth of 
water throughout. The tug has, therefore, had to 
eke out the profits from its legitimate traffic by making 
pleasure-trips up Bedford Basin, and along the coast 
to the various gold-diggings now in operation. How- 
ever, when the Halifax press announced the intended 
purchase of the tug, the delight of the St. John 
papers was unbounded. Rushing into extravagant 
leading articles, they announced with yells of triumph 
that the harbour of their good city boasted of about a 
dozen. There is nothing like making the best of an 
evil ; and the St. John editors commenced by ignoring 
the evils of their harbour, and then boasted of the 
remedies they had found requisite ! 

So might one deny the existence of headache, and 
yet proclaim the number of pills it had rendered 
necessary. For the harbour of St. John is a tidal 
one, the tide flowing to the height of fifty or sixty 
feet with all the force of an impetuous stream, and 
hard work would it be for any ship to beat against 
that tide, or even to sail against it with the fairest 
wind that was ever let loose from the caves of ^Eolus. 
Hence their tugs ; and feeble must have been their 



120 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

reasoning powers who hurled, by way of boast, their 
existence in the teeth of their rivals. Truly it was 
a foolish proceeding ; for even in the harbour itself, 
apart from the magnificent river, there are not a few 
causes for just pride. That very tide which sweeping 
in and out in such volume leaves the mud at the foot 
of the wharves bare twice a day, constitutes thereby 
a natural dry dock, whose virtues go far to make up 
for the other disadvantages. Had the editors boasted 
of this instead of their steam-tugs, they would have 
shown themselves as wise in their generation as that 
Mayor of their city, who, learning that Her Majesty's 
ship Hero with the Prince of Wales on board had 
grazed off Quebec, telegraphed at once to offer the 
harbour of St. John as a dock for inspection and re- 
pair. Such an advertisement would be worth a year 
of inflammatory editorials. Unfortunately, the press 
on the other side is far from blameless; for it uses 
the presence of our large North American squadron 
every summer as a taunt against their neighbours ; 
whereas the sole reason, I believe, for selecting it in 
preference to the other is its geographical position ; 
the inducements and facilities for desertion to the 
Yankees being greater at St. John, and the British 
tar not having yet attained that height of patriotism, 
which would enable him to despise the dollars winch 
go hand-in-hand with the stars and stripes, even while 
himself serving under that haughty banner which has 
braved so many things a thousand years. 

The presence of that ill-fated ship, the Great 
Eastern, in Halifax harbour was a sad blow to St. 
John ; but as, owing to some preposterous mistake on 
the part of the Nova Scotian authorities, the great 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 121 

ship left in a few hours boiling with rage, it was not 
made such an occasion of boasting by the Haligonians 
as it otherwise would have been. 

But a soothing and eke a proud moment was it for 
St. John when under the stimulus of the " Trent " 
affair, transport after transport landed its living 
freight on their wharves en route for Canada ; and 
right well did they earn this poor reward for their 
staunch patriotism, at a time when the outbreak of 
hostilities with the United States would have ruined 
their commerce, desolated their hearths, and made a 
shambles of their fertile territory. After the sight 
of their volunteers of all classes shouldering with 
ready glee the baggage of the troops who had come 
across the sea to fight by their sides, and with the re- 
collection still fresh of banquet after banquet in their 
honour, until one began to fear that in St. John the 
English army would find a Capua — one would be 
glad if, instead of an occasional gunboat in their 
harbour, they might have a squadron for evermore ; 
and in place of a single battery, and half a regiment, 
they might have a second Alclershott hutted among 
them by the green shores of the beautiful Kennebe- 
casis. And the writing of this long and breakneck 
word reminds me that I am at my old trade of 
wandering from the subject more immediately in hand. 

Now, in commencing a description of a province, 
I consider it best to begin with its capital. And 
although de facto the capital of New Brunswick is 
Fredericton, yet de jure St. John undoubtedly de- 
serves the title. For although the former contains 
the seat of government, the governor's residence, &c, 
yet it is but a village some eighty miles up the river, 



122 OUR GAERISOXS IX THE WEST. 

while St. John is a city of some forty thousand in- 
habitants, and any street in it could buy up the whole 
of Fredericton. Undoubtedly the last-named is more 
picturesque; St. John having few claims to be con- 
sidered so; and perhaps it is desirable in a new 
country to use such levers as the presence of the 
governor, and Houses of Assembly, for opening up 
the interior ; but in reality, Fredericton is no more 
the capital of the province than Windsor or Osborne, 
compared with London, is of England. 

St. John is built with considerable irregularity on 
a hill, but contains a good many tolerably large streets. 
The chief business thoroughfares are Prince TTilliam- 
street, King-street, and Dock-street; and the favourite 
streets for private residences are Germain, Charlotte, 
and Sydney-streets with Queen' s-square. There are 
several good banks, the most handsome being the 
new Bank of British North America, in Prince 
William-street. At the corner of this last-named 
street, near the reading room, and not far from the 
Post-office and Telegraph-office, it is the custom for 
business men much to congregate for the purpose of 
deep and earnest conversation. I have an impression 
that this is the Stock Exchange of St. John, but I 
always regard with awe anything of that description, 
and have a painful feeling when near such a group, 
of being an irreligious and uninitiated interloper. I 
would rather have plunged into the Maelstrom to 
pull a friend out, than have attempted to extricate 
him from the solemn group that always seemed to 
stand at ChubVs corner. If I could not avoid pass- 
ing near this spot, and felt called on by the courtesies 
of life to say, " Good morning" to any of the inch- 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 123 

viduals there assembled, I would do so hysterically, 
and feel as if I were guilty of a commercial sacrilege. 
Had I been told afterwards that my flippant remark 
had done something injurious to exchange, or played 
the old Harry with deals, or that by interrupting the 
remarks of some capitalist I had done something of- 
fensive to ships' bottoms (a most important item, I 
understand, in this good city), I should have felt no 
surprise, but much penitence. In fact, so cheap did I 
hold myself when near this corner, that, but for one 
circumstance, I should have for ever forfeited my self- 
esteem, although that is no easy faculty to knock 
out of a Scotchman. The means of its rescue was 
as follows : Weather permitting, it was my custom 
once a week to march my twenty men into the 
country in the very heaviest marching order possible. 
I would have gone miles out of my way then rather 
than avoid that corner. I felt at these moments that 
though my band was small, still they and I were re- 
presentative men of a body which has created panics 
among stocks, as well as foes ; and not deals, not 
grain, not King Cotton himself, would have lowered 
my pride there. 

When away from the scene of these grave and 
solemn meetings, I could not help marvelling at 
these gentlemen selecting "Sub Jove" to transact 
their business, when so many spacious halls were 
languishing empty around them. Could it be that 
it was to enable Mr. A. to rush unnoticed to tele- 
graph if the millionaire, Mr. B., smiled, or to enable 
Mr. C. quietly to draw his last dollar from that neigh- 
bouring bank if he detected gloom on the face of one 
of its directors ? Or, is it that speculation is, physi- 



124 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

cally as well as mentally, a feverish pursuit, and that 
the investments of capital are made no less in a 
draft than by a cheque? One thing I know, that 
it happening one winter night to snow so heavily 
that, aided by the wind on the following morning, 
some six or seven feet deep of snow were banked on 
this important spot, and all standing room was thus 
prohibited, I never saw so sad a sight as the counte- 
nances of the desolate merchants at every door and 
window, then* agonised features revealing harrowing 
tales of speculations suppressed, and of undertaken 
transactions left involuntarily in statu quo. Truly, 
if everything is vanity and vexation of spirit, to me 
maxima vanitas is Chubb's Corner ! 

The hotels of St. John are numerous and tolerably 
good. For one making a hurried visit perhaps the 
best and most convenient is Stubbs's; but, if a long 
visit is proposed, the comforts of privacy and good 
attendance are to be met with at the Waverley. Cabs 
are abundant in St. John, and comfortable ; but here 
for the first time, I met with the custom of turning 
cabs into omnibuses at all the steam-boat landings 
and the railway stations, and of compelling you to 
pay for four seats if you object to have any one 
thrust into the vehicle which you fondly hoped was 
your own private property for the time. They have 
all a pah of horses, and, being built in the States, are 
all covered with a preposterous amount of plating and 
ornament, the tendency of which, in a stranger's eyes, 
is to make the Jehus appear, if possible, more vilely 
attired than they really are, and that implies a bathos 
of degradation hi dress which is almost incredible. 

The fortifications of St. John are not in so good a 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 125 

state as they would probably have been, had our Go- 
vernment kept up a decent garrison during the last few 
years. An island called Partridge Island lies off the 
mouth of the harbour, and constitutes a strong natural 
defence. It has a powerful armament in very weak 
batteries ; and on the island there is in addition a 
lighthouse, a powerful steam fog-whistle — producing 
the most appalling noises ever heard by man — and a 
quarantine hospital. The name, Partridge Island, 
is not uncommon along the eastern shores of the 
lower provinces; and the two of the name with 
which I am acquainted, afford the most glaring cases 
of lucus a non lucendo I ever met with. 

Partridges, indeed ! You are as likely to meet an 
apteryx or a dodo ! 

The barracks are very good for their size, and are 
situated to the south-east of the town, with a large 
green parade in front reaching to the sea, and bounded 
by three batteries, rejoicing in the names of the Dor- 
chester, Mortar, and Graveyard batteries. The latter 
gloomy title arises from a tradition that beneath the 
ground on which it is built were huddled many years 
ago the bodies of those who fell victims to a severe epi- 
demic. These barracks were rather permitted to go to 
seed when the garrison was reduced to a few gun- 
ners ; but the influx of troops at the time of the 
Trent affair, caused them to be freshened up a little, 
although they proved far inadequate to the de- 
mands made on them by the troops pouring through. 
Across the harbour, on an eminence, is an old 
block-house called Carleton Tower ; and on a neck of 
land to the south of the harbour, the authorities are 
at present engaged in erecting powerful batteries, to 



126 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

be called, I understand, the Negroheacl Forts. The 
remains of an old fort, now nsed as a magazine, and 
called Fort Howe, situated at the head of the harbour, 
completes the catalogue of our defences for what in 
case of war with the Yankees would prove a priceless 
situation to retain, and constitute an irreparable loss 
if captured. It would be a great matter for our 
prestige, for the safety of our shipping, and the ad- 
vantage of our colonists, did each of our chief colonial 
harbours contain a permanent iron-clad blockship 
moored across, as an offensive and defensive weapon 
against an enemy's fleet. Sea-going qualities need 
not be insisted on ; even rigging could be dispensed 
with ; for there is no reason why they should not be 
built in the harbours they are intended to protect ; 
and yet hi then' armed inertia, they would be a 
powerful addition to the land batteries, and a rallying 
spot for merchantmen. 

I had almost omitted, however, to mention, that 
there are on charge, and in the hands of the volun- 
teers, a good many field-pieces complete, and, from 
what I saw of the volunteer artillery of New 
Brunswick, they could not be trusted in better 
hands. 

The public city buildings are not very numerous. 
There is, however, a tolerable Mechanics' Institute, 
where courses of lectures are delivered every winter, 
and which contains a library, and the nucleus of a 
museum. The Roman Catholic cathedral is a very 
handsome building; nor has it a rival in the form 
of a Protestant one, the latter building being at 
Fredericton, the bishop's see. The chief English 
churches in St. John are Trinity, St. James's, the 



MEW BRUNSWICK. 127 

Stone church, and the Valley church. There are 
here, as in most American cities, an enormous number 
of dissenters. 

There is a large building corresponding to the 
Palais de Justice, a prison, and across the river, near 
the suspension bridge, a large lunatic asylum. It is 
painful, although not astonishing, the number of 
lunatics in the lower provinces of British North 
America. It arises much, I believe, from constant 
intermarriage ; and I have no doubt is aided in the 
towns and villages by habits of constant intemperance. 
When will our colonists throw away the vile and too 
prevalent habit of "nipping" spirits from morn till 
night, and take, like their fathers, to beer 1 

The first object to which you would be driven by a 
native, is the Suspension Bridge over the rapids of 
the St. John river. This is a fine specimen of work- 
manship, but although much larger, is not I thmk so 
picturesque as the bridge at the Grand Falls, some 
one hundred and fifty miles further up the river. 
The whole of the road traffic to Gao-etown and Fre- 
dericton passes over this bridge ; and in summer, not- 
withstanding the steamers plying day and night on 
the river, this is by no means inconsiderable. The 
rapids over which the bridge is swung, are at low 
water considerably beneath it, and almost merit the 
name of a waterfall. But an amusing circumstance, 
although useful withal, is that at high tide the water 
rises so much that the current actually runs the other 
way ; the inequality of the river's surface disappearing, 
the falls invisible, while steamers and sailing vessels 
ply up with ease. I was stupefied the second time I 
crossed the bridge, having seen it first at low water, 



128 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

and now at high, without having been warned of the 
peculiarity. 

So much at present for the city itself, and now a 
word or two on the inhabitants. 

Were, in these days of competitive examination, 
the various bishoprics offered to the public, and were 
the subjects chosen those which, in the Bible, are con- 
sidered the proper characteristics of a bishop, I be- 
lieve that on the single ground of their absolute per- 
fection in the Episcopal virtue of hospitality, every 
see from Canterbury to Sierre Leone would be 
awarded to St. John. 

The genial and uncalculating kindness of the whole 
community, rich and poor, gentle and simple, is im- 
printed on my recollection in ineffaceable characters. 
Nor is it that dreary hospitality that dwells in 
Bloomsbury and in provincial towns at home, where 
dinners are given in the same spirit that debts are 
paid ; and an evening party is always associated in 
one's mind with a daughter to marry. The St. John 
hospitality is after this wise ; and in no way can I 
better describe it : You are met in the street by Pater- 
familias; after a little preliminary conversation, he 
suggests luncheon, dinner, or a rubber in the evening 
as the case may be ; and you know the custom of the 
house, and do not dread a sour or gloomy welcome to 
an unexpected guest, while thoughts of cold meat 
rise in your hostess's discontented mind. Verily, 
I have seen cold mutton assume the guise of a 
royal banquet under the influence of genial smiles 
and cheerful welcome ; and never was the merry 
rubber for sixpenny points unaccompanied by the 
cosy jug of steaming punch. Not that I by any 
means insinuate that the usual life is one of cold 






NEW BRUNSWICK. 129 

meat — far from it; let me tell you, good Mrs. 
Simpkins of Baker-street, or you, Mrs. Scraggs of 
Little Paddington, that your grim feasts, with wines 
from a new company, joint from a bad butcher, and 
attendant sprites whose nature and name is green- 
grocery, would, in these colonies of ours, pale away 
into merited insignificance beside the dinners I have 
seen, and — thanks to thee, O star of my nativity 
— have tasted. 

What think you of this for a dinner in the dead 
of winter, in a city whose name mayhap is strange to 
you, or, if known, has always been associated in your 
mind with Indians, and bear -meat, and mouldy 
biscuits ? Let me recal part of the menu : there 
were quails from Virginia, prairie-fowls from the Far 
West, canvas-back duck from the New York market, 
and hare come all the way from England wrapped 
tenderly in ice ! These with joints beside which 
your inevitable roast and boiled looked miserably 
tame ; fish as good as you ever bought in Billings- 
gate ; soup not made with the debris of a week's 
housekeeping; and sweets that would have done credit 
to Gunter or Verey. But above all these luxuries 
there rises in my mind the recollection of a hock, 
whose bouquet and flavour would open the eyes of 
those many -wine companies (limited we hope in their 
dealings as well as constitution), which are now in- 
undating our metropolis. And yet higher than it, 
embracing feast and f easters in one sweet atmosphere, 
was that feeling of genuine hospitality, beneath whose 
surface you felt that the host was not counting the 
cost, nor the hostess scoring off your name from her 
list of creditors in re dinners and entertainments ! To 

K 



130 CUE GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

some such genial host on some cold winters night 
would Horace have sung those cost and epicurean 
lines : 

Dissolve frigus. ligna super foco 
Large reponeus : atque benignius 

Deprome quadrinmm Sabina 

Thaliarche. merum diota ! 

I never knew a town in whose society there were 
fewer cliques : the result was. that any joint under- 
taking was generally eminently successful. I enter- 
tain most delightful recollections of pleasant sleigh- 
ing parties to a spot on the Kennebecasis some seven 
miles from town. The sleighs used to parade in a 
square in the town, or in the hollow by the Valley 
church, and mustered as a rule pretty numerous. 
Generally a four-in-hand containing some eight or 
ten passengers would lead, and another bring up the 
rear : the others, pleasing in their variety, descended 
through the several grades of unicorn, tandem, the 
domestic pair of stout coach horses, even to the sled 
with the fast trotting pony. The gay robes and skins 
more varied than the coat of Joseph, the merry 
tingling of many-toned bells, the joyous shoutings 
and laughings, combined to render the effect on a 
stranger, such as to make the pretty faces in these 
same sleighs most dangerous and inflammatory in 
then' influences : while to one past the impressionable 
age. it seemed not unlike some gay travelling circus, 
and beat TVonibweH's menagerie all to nothing. 
Several times we attempted music en route, but the 
frost either split the reeds or froze up the cornet, and 
the result was. that we kept the music for our danc- 
ing after luncheon. On one melancholy occasion I 
brought a corporal who was believed to be very strong 
on the comet, and a temperance man to boot ; while 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 131 

in power of kings he was supposed to be more 
than a match for Jack Frost himself. Whether 
he got an absolution on that day, or imbibed it 
medicinally, I cannot say; all I know is, that the 
arch impostor required so many stimulants of the 
very strongest spirits to keep him up to time, that 
on commencing to dance at our destination, it was 
found that he was only capable, in his part of the 
orchestral performance, of interpolating an occasional 
unearthly wail, and was speedily removed drunk and 
speechless. When driving home in the evening, our 
Orpheus was strapped to the boot of the leading 
sleigh, and kept muttering the whole way a most 
courteous wish " that we should not go out of our 
way to drop him first !' ? 

"We generally had luncheon at a small hotel called 
; - Watts's," and danced till twilight, returning in the 
grey evening, merry and too frequently spooney, often 
finishing at some house in town with a rubber, perhaps 
a second dance and supper. In the vicinity of the 
above-named hotel there are many pretty cottages, 
the summer residences of the wealthier classes of St. 
John, whose windows command a beautiful view on 
the Kennebecasis, a large lake or reservoir from the 
St. John river, whose further shores are bounded by 
ranges of picturesque purple hills, forming altogether 
a picture more like our Scottish lakes than anything 
I saw in America. It is a f avourite spot for boating, 
although subject to severe and sudden squalls, most 
dangerous to the inexperienced. 

A melancholy accident which occurred on it when 
I was in St. John, was the means of bringing to my 
notice a superstition perfectlv strange to me, and I 
k2 * 



132 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

daresay to many of my readers. Preparatory to a 
small yacht race, a gentleman, the owner of one of 
the yachts, and also one of the wealthiest men in St. 
John, had gone in a small skiff on the lake, and 
through its being upset in a sudden squall he was 
drowned. This happened in the afternoon, and at 
about 6 a.m. on the following day, I was awakened 
by a request for the services of a gun detachment to 
fire over the spot where the body had gone down, in 
the expectation that the concussion of the water, or 
some such cause, would make it rise. Of course, 
however much I might doubt the efficacy of such a 
proceeding, yet under the melancholy circumstances 
I could not but grant their request ; but although my 
anticipations were verified by the barren results, I 
was surprised to find in many instances a belief in the 
utility of this method, and from more than one indi- 
vidual I received anecdotes which were supposed to 
be corroborative. Still, while unprepared to refute 
them, I fancied that other and more natural causes 
could be brought to account for them. 

While on the subject of the relaxations and amuse- 
ments of the St. Johnians, I cannot but express my 
surprise and regret that in no other town in British 
North America, Quebec alone excepted, with which 
I, at least, am acquainted, does the noble English 
game of cricket meet with so little encouragement. 
There are difficulties about a good ground, certainly, 
but these would vanish before an energetic community 
like this, were they in earnest in a desire to foster the 
game. It may be, too, as I hint in another chapter, 
that the absence for so many years of a garrison has 
had much to do with the fact, but still there must be 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 133 

some other latent cause, or one, at least, not super- 
ficially visible. For little Fredericton is one of the 
keenest places for cricket I ever saw, and would beat 
many an old country village of twice its size all to 
nothing. And in the neighbouring province as I 
have already shown, the love of cricket always great, 
is now waxing stronger every day. 

Before entering on a few details more connected 
with the province than the city, I shall give to the 
best of my recollection the current market prices of 
most articles of food at the time I was there, and I 
understand these are generally unaltered now. Beef 
and mutton in the open market average about 3d. 
a pound, and less if bought by the quarter, which in 
winter every one can do, keeping it frozen until re- 
quired; potatoes, about Is. 6d. to 2s. sterling a 
bushel ; partridges, Is. a brace ; rabbits, 5d. a couple ; 
woodcock and snipe, 2s. to 3s. a couple ; carriboo 
venison about 4d. per lb., and moose meat the same, 
or Id. less ; salmon, 6d. per lb. ; sea-trout, less ; and 
lake-trout, 2d. or 3d. a dozen : tea is from 2s. to 2s. 6d. 
per lb. of the very best ; flour varies, and also oat and 
Indian meal ; the beer of the country is tolerable and 
cheap ; coal is generally about 18s. a chaldron, and 
wood 3J to 4 dollars a cord. All vegetables are cheap 
and good ; but everything in the form of cloth or dry 
goods, except the homespun cloth of the province, is 
indifferent. House rents are high; furniture dear 
and bad ; and there is a sprinkling of the rowdy 
element from the United States in the city ; but with 
these exceptions you may go far before you will come 
across a more cheerful residence than dear old St. 
John. 



134 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Although the lumber trade of New Brunswick 
affords more employment than any other to its inha- 
bitants, I am disposed to think that it would be better 
for the wealth and welfare of the province, and infi- 
nitely more profitable in the long run for the settler, 
if the agricultural features of the province were more 
studied than they are. The immense tracts of well- 
watered and fertile land which are found all over the 
province, seem to cry out for labour and cultivation ; 
and the value of land when reclaimed and offered for 
sale, shows that the colonists are not ignorant of the 
agricultural richness of their soil. The lumber trade 
is capricious, and even if not so, is exhaustible ; and 
while it is wrong in the light of political economy to 
see a province, or even a county, liable to the suffer- 
ings incidental upon the depression of any one article 
of trade, with no other item to counterbalance then 
losses, it is surely even more than folly, actual suicide, 
to continue living, as it were, not on a regular income, 
but eating into a capital which one or two decades 
will exhaust utterly. The emigrant who would turn 
his hand to agriculture, would find in New Brunswick 
not merely the advantages of soil I have mentioned, 
but also good roads and rivers, which, winter and 
summer alike, are so many highways ready-made for 
him ; he will have numerous and excellent markets, 
with great facilities of communication, and he will 
reap the advantages resulting from a well-managed 
and tolerably extensive system of railways. And in 
colonies like our British American colonies, where as 
a rule railways are inefficient, and too often are 
gigantic political jobs, it is pleasant to be able to state 
that we find exceptions, at least, in New Brunswick. 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 135 

One line from St. John to Shediac, a port on the 
east coast, about one hundred miles in length, is one 
of the best built and most ably managed lines I have 
ever met with ; and another line connecting St. 
Andrews, a port on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, 
near the State of Maine, with Woodstock, a mode- 
rately large place, about forty miles higher up the 
river St. John than Fredericton, although unfortunate 
as yet financially, requires only time to make it as 
good a speculation as it is beneficial to the province. 
For I am certain, and I do not say so without know- 
ing that I speak the opinion of no mean authorities 
on railway matters, that a railway will always create 
its own traffic, where it does not already exist. Run 
a fine through the Desert of Sahara itself, and I am 
not sure that you would not have villas springing up 
in a few years alongside, with occasional hospitals for 
victims to pulmonary or other diseases, to which 
moisture is antagonistic. Therefore, although I once 
spent the most miserable twenty-four hours of my 
life on the line of railway alluded to, I do not hesitate 
to say and to hope that its success will be in proportion 
to its merits, and when they are, may I be a share- 
holder ! 

For farming, I should prefer the land around 
Sussex Vale, Gragetown, Fredericton, and Woodstock; 
or if prepared to rough it, I should commence clear- 
ing any of the land on the river St. John. But 
there is a district in New Brunswick, with which I 
am unacquainted, away towards the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and generally talked of as the " North 
Shore." The sportsman would like this, but the 



136 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

agricultural emigrant as well might fall there on his 
feet, if report speaks correctly. I am the less dis- 
posed, however, to make particular selections on my 
own responsibility, as I know that every information 
can be obtained from the provincial authorities and 
their agents, both in England and in the province, 
far better than could be given by one of limited ex- 
perience like myself. 

I should here like to mention, par parenthese, the 
advantages of the long dreary winter which seems so 
serious a drawback in English eyes. And, first, let 
me say that, to a certain extent, nature herself re- 
arranges the apparent disproportion of the seasons, 
if we are obliged to take the English arrangement as 
the standard. It does so by supplying an infinitely 
greater rapidity to vegetation, without producing 
rankness or coarseness. This it is that enables dis- 
tricts whose fields are covered with snow from Octo- 
ber to June, to produce and ripen well in the open 
air, grapes, peaches, and fruits, which one associates 
with climates extremely temperate if not nearly 
tropical. I would next say that this heavy blanket 
of snow which in winter covers the ground, is highly 
beneficial to the soil, acting as a protection against 
the keen frosts, which would otherwise penetrate 
many feet into the earth ; and in the spring, by its 
melting, fertilising the soil and preparing it for its 
summer crops. And, lastly, I would state that to 
this long winter, the sellers owe more than can be 
described by the facilities of communication by 
sleighing over the country where there may be no 
roads, and where transit in summer would be wholly 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 137 

impossible. By this means also, they can take their 
horses and oxen into the forest with ease, the un- 
derwood being dead, and draw out the huge trunks 
of trees which form so important an item of their 
trade. 

The shipping of New Brunswick is pretty exten- 
sive, and owing to then' cargoes being chiefly timber, 
and therefore bulky, the vessels are generally of con- 
siderable tonnage. In this respect they differ from the 
Nova Scotian ships, which being chiefly employed in 
the West India trade, or others where the cargoes are 
not so bulky in proportion to their value as timber, 
such as sugar, fish, fruit, &c, are themselves also 
very small in comparison with the value of their con- 
tents. 

The fisheries of New Brunswick are not extensive. 
In the Bay of Fundy the chief fish is shad, a bony 
but delicious fish. 

Shediac is famous for oysters of an excellent qua- 
lity, although larger and a little coarser than English 
or Leith oysters; but one's palate soon gets accus- 
tomed to the difference, as ye may well bear witness, 
O noctes multse ambrosianje, when this little shell- 
fish provoked the merry quip, the pearls of jest and 
repartee, and begat again and again the thirst for 
that mighty and refreshing fluid, beer ! 

And, lastly, I have to make the same sad statement 
as in my chapter on Nova Scotia, as to the cruel evils 
resulting to the province by its possession in this, its 
unfledged youth, of representative government, and 
almost universal suffrage. I speak not merely of 
the preposterous fact that some quarter of a million 



138 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

people should have their upper and lower Houses of 
Parliament, with the many forms and ceremonies 
which, although appropriate and dignified in England, 
are a mere travestie there ; nor do I speak of the 
folly and danger of intrusting in the hands of a few 
men, too often ignorant and unprincipled, the destinies 
of what ought, with fair play, to be some day a rich 
and happy country; but I do protest against the 
moral evil the system begets among the inhabitants, 
— the loose habits of life and of thought which al- 
most invariably accompany, among the lower orders, 
the use of political power and the contemplation 
of political dishonesty and traffic ! In my mind, to 
ruin an honest labourer, the best thing you can do is 
to give him a vote : it unsettles him utterly, and de- 
prives him of those characteristics which, I think, are 
his chief virtues. I have drawn a conclusion from 
what I have seen in six years of American politics, 
and it is this : that for the purpose of gratifying a 
prejudice, for it is nothing else, you periodically un- 
settle the trade of a country, and the order and disci- 
pline of its inhabitants, and that there is no man so 
unbearable and so thirsty at election times as your 
independent voter. On the question of the justice 
of universal suffrage, I speak elsewhere ; but in con- 
cluding this chapter, which I do while fresh from the 
perusal of a new pair of orations at Rochdale by 
Messrs. Bright and Cobden, I would say that, in the 
contrast these gentlemen draw between our voting 
colonists and our non-enfranchised peasantry, they 
are either greatly misled, or sinfully misleading. The 
state which they term liberty in our colonies is de- 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 139 

generating daily into unbridled licence ; and the in- 
terests of the provinces instead of being in the hands 
of the few who have a [stake in them, are in the 
power of a mob who cannot comprehend the great 
principles of a nation's prosperity and liberty, and 
who would not probably if they could. No ! no ! 
educate first, and then enfranchise; do not enfran- 
chise in order to get a more extended system of educa- 
tion, as these gentlemen propose to do. 



140 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 

Per mare, per terras. 

In the end of September, 1857, I resolved on 
taking a run of a few weeks in Canada, taking a 
glimpse also at the Northern States. To see many 
places was impossible, owing to the limited time at 
my disposal, and the great distances in America com- 
pared with England. By means, however, of Apple- 
ton's Guide, I sketched out a route, which seemed to 
include many places of interest, while it was at the 
same time feasible as regarded the time at my dis- 
posal. My intention was to proceed to St. John, 
New Brunswick ; thence by sea to Portland ; from 
the latter city to Montreal, by the Grand Trunk 
Railway, and then up the St. Lawrence to Kingston 
and Toronto. From Toronto I proposed crossing Lake 
Ontario to Niagara, and, after a short stay at the 
Falls, I should come home by Albany, Boston, and 
St. John, or from Boston to Halifax direct, should 
I hit off the Cunard steamer between these ports. 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 141 

This is a route, the greater part of which has 
been more than once described by able pens; but, 
as few people look at a place with the same eyes, I 
do not think there is much danger of monotony in 
description. Besides, although this particular journey 
of mine was hurried, and my observations necessarily 
superficial, I purpose embodying in this place, in- 
formation which I afterwards obtained, by frequent 
journeys, and prolonged residence in several of the 
places, through which I passed very hastily in my 
first expedition. And, as travellers are apt to note 
either, the " mo?*es hominum" or the " urbes" as their 
minds may happen to be constituted, but seldom both 
thoroughly, I trust that having lived more intimately 
and thoroughly in our American colonies than a 
mere traveller, more, indeed, like a resident, I may 
give a tolerably accurate account of both these sub- 
jects of travellers' contemplation. 

In 1857 the railway from Halifax to Windsor was 
incomplete, being open for ten miles only, as far as the 
head of Bedford Basin, leaving the remainder of the 
journey to be done in a coach. This coach, and its 
fellows all over the province, were the most amazing 
specimens of carriage architecture ever beheld. The 
roads of Nova Scotia, to which, by the way, I should 
have alluded in my chapter on the province, are a 
disgrace to the country, and a source of extreme dis- 
comfort and irritation to passengers in any convey- 
ance, public or private, with springs or without. In 
huge vehicles, like the old stage coaches to which we 
have alluded, springs were utterly out of the question ; 
so the body of the conveyance was hung on gigantic 
leather bands, long enough to allow of considerable 



142 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

oscillation, and, in a sharp turn of the road, to give 
the outside passengers a practical conception of the 
power of centrifugal force. The interior was roomy, 
and passengers sat three deep, through an ingenious 
arrangement of leather bands, which without block- 
ing up the ordinary two seats of a close carriage, 
formed a movable back to a third. The horses were 
wretched, the coachman important, the coach coated 
with the mud of ages, but allowing, nevertheless, 
sufficient antique gilding and ornaments to peep 
through, to awaken in one's mind the idea of a Lord 
Mayor's coach under a cloud. There was a reckless 
way of piling passengers and luggage on the top, 
which must have appalled the nervous insides ; in- 
deed, old ladies seldom took their eyes off the interior 
of the roof, but remained gazing, with a devotional 
aspect, as if they hoped to prevent accidents by keep- 
ing the top of the coach in a mesmeric trance. 

The method of driving was one calculated more to 
display the sure-footedness of the team than to re- 
assure timid passengers; the coachman generally 
driving furiously down hill, so as to get sufficient way 
on to carry it up the incline which generally follows a 
descent. At these moments, the compressed lips and 
fixed look of horror to be seen in the elderly passen- 
gers served to divert one's attention from the loosen- 
ing baggage and the extremely precarious tenure of 
one's private portmanteau. I remember on a later 
occasion than the one referred to in this chapter, the 
long-expected break-down came off, but fortunately 
without injury to anything save a wheel ; but we had 
a walk of some five or six miles in consequence, as 
well as a great deal of that mental anxiety which 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 143 

afflicts the travelling Briton whenever he is separated 
from his personal baggage. 

The first twenty-five miles from Halifax to Wind- 
sor is as sterile and unpromising a drive as the last ten 
or fifteen is the reverse. On all sides there is nothing 
but a stunted forest of sometime hardwood, sometime 
pine, whose wretched growth speaks volumes about the 
poorness of the soil, and whose monotony is only 
varied by the occasional bleached forms of ancient 
giant trees, which rear themselves above the surround- 
ing foliage with their dead branches covered with 
sweeping moss, and stretched wildly to heaven, re- 
minding one of those beautiful lines in " Evangeline," 
speaking of these forest patriarchs : 

Stand like Druids of old, "with voices sad and pathetic, 

Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. 

Every now and then you come on a small clearing 
with a wretched hut on it, or some miserable shed by 
the roadside for the sale of spirits to the men working 
on the railroad ; but to the farmer, or the immigrant, 
few spots can be conceived more uninviting than 
those through which we drove in the old staging days 
for the first two or three hours of our journey. But, 
as far as scenery went, there is, to the artist, no lack 
of wild and beautiful subjects — forest scenes, or water 
scenes, for the whole country is covered by continuous 
chains of lakes, in whose dark waters are mirrored with 
striking effect the trees and the heavens. And there 
is something so different in the little world of passen- 
gers on a coach, from the six silent individuals in an 
English railway carriage, each with his Times, — so 
much heartiness, so abundant a conversation, that 
when the country was more than usually uninterest- 



144 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

ing, we were not left to twirl our thumbs in stupid 
silence. I have meditated on this singular difference 
between coach and rail, and have decided, to my own 
satisfaction, at least, that the superior amenity and 
cheerfulness of the passengers by the former, is due 
to the presence of the coachman, who, acting partly 
as a master of the ceremonies, partly as a speaker of 
this little assembly, and partly as a species of host, 
begets an ease and a conversation among the passen- 
gers unknown in railway travelling. For instance, 
who ever saw an outside passenger by the mail read- 
ing a newspaper ? or who ever knew a couple of out- 
siders sit together a mile without seeing them ex- 
change information as to their destination and other 
matters, to ask about which in a railway carriage 
would be deemed an impertinent intrusion ? 

The first private residence of any consequence is 
Mount Uniacke, a place more like an English manor- 
house than any I have seen in the province. 

But the first place which when found is to be made 
a note of, is the hotel known as the Halfway House. 
Alas ! as to many of our best inns in England, the 
now completed railway has brought desolation and 
silence on this hospitable hearth; and the landlord 
may well wring his hands and mutter, "Ichabod, 
Ichabod." But in the days I talk of, twice a day did 
a coach disgorge a hungry load of passengers to do 
justice to breakfasts whose equal I never shall see 
again. Rise yet again in our memories, O vision of 
clean room and blazing log fire, where, on snowy 
linen, the juicy steak reposed by the sputtering chop, 
or the brown spatchcock was spread, as if in mockeiy, 
vis-a-wis to a huge dish of eggs and bacon, while every 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 145 

corner saw rolls and toast, Indian meal-cakes with de- 
licious butter, and excellent tea and coffee. Rise, too, 
ye dear old waitresses, with snowy caps and ruddy 
faces, whose welcome was as hearty as if we were the 
only travellers you ever saw, or ever should see again ! 
The charge, too, was so moderate, only eighteenpence, 
or in American parlance, three York shillings; and 
a very good eighteen penn'orth we always took, thanks 
to the oxygen imbibed on the top of the coach ; and 
plenty of time were we allowed to do our duty by it. 

Ah me! when I went to Windsor by train, and 
made an effort at one of the stations to obtain refresh- 
ments, how sweetly did the memory of the old Half- 
way House come before me, as I stood in a long 
wooden shed, contemplating some cups of a thick, 
dark fluid, mingled with plates of apple-tart, cut in 
geometrical sections, and somewhat fossil-like in ap- 
pearance. I dropped my shilling in my pocket again 
with a sigh, and, as I turned away, I thought that, 
perhaps, after all, in these racing days, we paid 
somewhat heavily for rapid locomotion. 

But I am waxing maudlin, and on a subject which 
should appeal more to the feelings of Joe, the im- 
mortal fat boy, than to any respectable traveller. 
However, not to come too suddenly from the descrip- 
tion of a meal to that of scenery, let me pause to 
mention a fact connected with the diet of the Nova 
Scotian peasantry — I may say, the peasantry of the 
greater part of our American colonies and the Northern 
States. As among our Australian brethren, but with 
less reason, tea, among the peasants and domestic 
servants, is an invariable concomitant with every 
meal, completely taking the place of beer. One 

L 



146 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

reason may be that tea may be had from Is. 6<L to 
2s. a pound ; and another, that the beer of the colo- 
nies is decidedly inferior to that which can be pro- 
cured for the same price at home. For such of the 
settlers as live far from any town or village, beer, 
even if good, would be out of the question, on ac- 
count of the impossibility of transport. So tea offers 
the easiest means of avoiding cold water as a beve- 
rage, a drink to which I think the labouring man has 
a wholesome antipathy. Good beer, I have heard 
many medical men declare, is far better for working 
men than tea, which, taken in such enormous quanti- 
ties, must have an evil effect on the nervous system, 
while conferring, at the same time, no nourishment. 
But this is a trifle compared with a much worse habit, 
which is gaining ground very rapidly in our American 
towns and villages. I refer to a custom, imported 
from the United States, called "nipping," or dram- 
drinking, which, without actual intoxication, keeps 
the nerves under the continued influence of stimu- 
lants. Although domestic servants in the towns have 
the same habits, as regards tea, as the country settlers, 
it is to be deplored that this abominable system of 
nipping is acquiring a prevalence among the lower 
classes — and even the young men of the middle and 
upper — nearly as great as in the Northern States. 
The quality of the spirits within the reach of the 
poor is infamous, rendered so by the fiery, poisonous 
ingredients which are used to produce a cheap and 
intoxicating compound. One vile drink, composed 
largely of vitriol, and known variously as "White- 
eye " and u Kazors," is so cheap that it has been truly 
said a man can get drunk on it for twopence. This 






HALIFAX TO MONTKEAL. 147 

filth is the ruin — physically and morally — of a great 
portion of our soldiers and sailors in America ; and it 
is disgraceful to the colonial governments that the 
infamous traffic in it should be allowed to continue. 
In six years' service in America I have seen many of 
our finest men fall victims to its poison ; have seen 
healthy men dwindle into consumption and death ; 
and have known wretched men under its influence 
commit unmanly suicide. I have seen sober men 
become habitual drunkards; happy families made 
miserable by its desolating breath ; and men who, in 
their reasonable moments, loathed their drunken 
habits, I have seen unable, in the cold climate, to 
resist its temptation, and go speedily down that ladder 
of vice whose last step is in the grave. No intoxica- 
tion is more bestial than that produced by this vile 
compound. Men under it are carried away scream- 
ing and howling like devils. No other drunkenness 
is followed by a reaction so dreadful as this. Phy- 
sical anguish, intense mental depression, burning 
thirst, all combine to drive the wretched victim back 
to his enemy for an hour's forgetfulness. Although 
the good things of life are meant to be used in mode- 
ration, and the soldier who takes his beer is as good, 
and better, than the man who inflates himself with 
unwholesome ginger-pop, or curdles his blood with 
lemonade, still there is a limit which the private 
soldier is too easily led to transgress. And, although 
Shakspeare remarks that 

A soldier's a man and life's but a span, 
Then come let the soldier drink : 

yet he must not become a beast, either by chinking 

to excess, or bad, unwholesome liquor. And where 

l2 



148 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

advice will not deter men, nor is power given to in ii- 
vi duals to check the consumption and sale of such 
poison as demoralises our garrisons in the west, surely 
the government is hound to interfere, and assumes a 
grave responsibility, as well as incurs an awful risk, 
when it declines to do so. 

But while we are moralising the coach has changed 
horses at Martin's, and is speedily lessening the dis- 
tance between us and Windsor, which we approach 
through a beautiful, well-cultivated, and fertile dis- 
trict. Ere long we see the University, and the many 
spires of the village, which speak as much for its sec- 
tarianism as its religion, and we are not long in em- 
barking on board the steamer Creole, en route for St. 
John. This unhappy vessel, to which allusion is 
elsewhere made, was one of those singular-looking 
American steamers universal on the rivers and lakes 
of the continent, with whose appearance we are 
rendered familiar from childhood by the vignette on 
the first page of the Illustrated London News. They 
are bad sea-boats, from the amount of top-hamper 
they cany; but there are plenty of harbours along 
the coast, where, in event of rough weather, they can 
put in for shelter. On leaving St. John, a city else- 
where described, which we did on the morning after 
our arrival, I found myself on board a larger vessel 
of the same description as the Creole, with a motley 
crew of passengers. 

One great beauty of these steamers is, that from all 
the cabins being above water in tiers, with large win- 
dows and balconies, one does not suffer from that 
abominable sour atmosphere which one associates with 
steamers on this side the Atlantic. There is a pleas- 






HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 149 

ing attempt at decoration in the saloons, and a 
general cleanliness in the sleeping berths of vessels of 
this description belonging to American companies, 
which tend greatly to lessen the discomfort usually 
attendant on a short sea passage. We found, in this 
respect, a marked superiority in the journey from St. 
John to Portland, over that melancholy night on the 
Creole, between Windsor and St. John. 

The presence of negro stewards and stewardesses 
on board the Portland steamer reminded us of our ap- 
proach to Yankee land, for in that free country " a 
man and a brother" generally is to be found in the 
most menial offices. There was a bar on board — that 
great American institution, and the attendant sprite 
was an active young mulatto, who varied the mono- 
tony of his spirituous duties by shaving the passengers 
for a small consideration. It is singular in the States 
to see the numbers who are dependent on professional 
artists for this simple, and with us domestic, duty. 
Every hotel of any size has its barber's shop attached ; 
and hundreds, not merely the residents in the hotel, 
troop there daily to have their lank yellow cheeks 
shaved, and their beards trimmed and pointed. The 
shaving and hair-cutting establishments of New York 
are conducted on a scale of magnificence, which make 
them well worth a visit ; and in every petty river or 
lake steamer you find, as a matter of course, a small 
den for similar purposes, with almost invariably a 
coloured barber. 

Early as the hour was on the morning we left St. 
John, I found the bar well filled with gentlemen hav- 
ing their early bitters — their gin-sling, phlegm-cutter, 
or morning glory, or some other of the chinks to 



150 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

which an ardent fancy loves to give startling names. 
And here for the first time I witnessed the custom, 
afterwards so familiar, of standing treat for drinks. No 
matter if wholly unacquainted with those around him, 
the first thing a true Yankee says is, " Strangers, lets 
liquor ! " And as a matter of course the strangers ac- 
cept the invitation, and during the day most honour- 
ably does each one reciprocate the compliment. The 
result is a life of stimulants, a disordered stomach, a 
diseased appetite, and an unwholesome complexion. 

In small inns, particularly in the country, where the 
landlord is his own bar-keeper, he often avails himself 
of this custom in a way that redounds highly to the 
good of the house. 

Being on one occasion, when travelling alone, 
obliged to spend the night in one of these small 
hotels, I went for company to the public room. Here 
I found a considerable assemblage of the village males 

O CD 

engaged in that desultory conversation which gene- 
rally precedes liquid refreshment. 

A stranger, and particularly a Britisher, was an 
unusual treat for this group, and in a moment I was 
helpless in their hands, commencing to suffer that 
course of cross-examination hi which the Yankee 
excels. The landlord was a sharp fellow, and had an 
eye to business ; and seeing that it was an advanta- 
geous moment, he announced his intention of standing 
" free drinks" all round to commence the evening's 
entertainment. Whether it was the unusual charm 
of drinking a landlord's liquor gratis, or not, I am 
hardly prepared to state, but the hearts of the com- 
pany were at once opened. 

His example was followed by each in succession — 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 151 

and as there were some twenty of us, I looked forward 
with some horror to having to accept the hospitality 
of them all. After an hour or so, therefore, I pleaded 
fatigue, and retired to rest ; but just before I got into 
bed I heard some one stumbling at the door, and, on 
looking, I found one of my friends from below with a 
steaming glass of something in his hand, which he 
pressed me hard to take, hiccuping out u only sleep- 
ing drops — that's all." 

The natures of American drinks are rather startling 
to an Englishman at times. There is a small town 
called Eastport, on the borders of the State of Maine, 
at which we made a short stoppage on our w^ay to 
Portland. Here I accepted the invitation of a fellow- 
passenger to go on shore and u licker " at a rare place 
with which he said he was acquainted. 

This choice house of refreshment was in the main 
street of the place, and seemed a species of small wine 
merchant's. My hospitable stranger gave his orders in 
a low tone, and presently two large tumblers of a 
dark fluid were presented to us. Watching his move- 
ments with, some anxiety, I saw him chuck the 
contents of his glass down his throat as calmly as if 
it had been a thimblefull. 

Naturally concluding that it was some cooling 
drink, I proceeded to treat mine in a similar manner. 
In my haste I had swallowed half before I could 
check myself; but conceive my j horror on finding, 
while this autumn day was still young, that I was 
drinking port wine in tumblers ; and no soft mellow 
wine, but a good fiery mixture of raisins and brandy, 
which reminded one more of the snapdragon of early 
youth than anything else. And while doubled up by 



152 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

internal burning and remorse, insult was added to in- 
jury by my companion remarking with a complacent 
air: 

"I reckon, stranger, you don't have no such stuff 
as that down east where you was raised !" 

Down east, gentle reader, is the Yankee synonyme 
for our country, whose flag &c. &c. 

Long before my dismay had subsided, the steamer 
was ready to continue her journey, and we went on 
board. 

There was little to do there but to lounge on the 
deck or in the saloons. Though rejoicing in the 
name of The Admiral, our vessel was a shocking slow 
coach, and night coming on found us still some nine 
or ten hours from our destination. 

As we move over the swelling waters, where, like the 
seagull, the shadows of the night are nestling closely 
down, we can distinguish the clouds thronging dark 
and gloomy above us, and the wind wails, as in a 
lonely house, whose corridors are haunted by memo- 
ries of the dead. A rough night seems imminent, and 
our boat may have to struggle with the winds and 
waves for her gaudily-painted carcase. 

And thought, like the sea, takes its hue from the 
clouds, and is stormy and dark and troubled. 

I am led to believe that at certain states of the 
mind there is no greater luxury than a good cry for 
the fair sex. 

A good think (if I may so utterly disregard Lindley 
Murray) may be made an equal source of pleasure to 
the male part of the community. Instead of yawning 
and grumbling, when one happens to have nothing in 
the way of active employment, a solitary seat on deck, 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 153 

or under a tree, with a perfect abandoning of the mind 
to thouo-ht, may vielcl to a healthy mind a calm but 
intense enjoyment. 

Thought may be considered the atmosphere of the 
universe, and as our terrestrial region of air is troubled 
with clouds and eddies, mists and whirlwinds, so also 
is the kingdom, of thought ; but in both these are soon 

CD O J 

surmounted, and far above, through all infinity, 
stretches the calm, illimitable ether. 

Thought is, too, as a ladder to heaven : on silent 
feet, and with noiseless wings, the spirit clambers up 
its steps, and strives to reach the infinite ! And as of 
old to the patriarch at Bethel, so to many of us there 
appear angels, ascending and descending, whose 
bright forms are but rays glancing from the great 
sun of all truth and all knowledge. 

A life of thouo-ht is the life of angels, for we can 

CD O ' 

free ourselves from earth and body, and, soaring- awav 

vi 7 7 CD •! 

into space, and back into vanished ao-es, can gaze on 

1 / O / CD 

the mysterious and hold intercourse with the dead. 
Verily, at times it is a good thing to dream and en- 

«/ ' cd cd 

courage reverie ! The mind will stu'elv never linger 

>— o CD 

long in voluntary reflection on what is foul and sinful : 
let us ascend above that layer of the atmosphere of 
thought, which, as in the earth, alone contains the 
odours and impregnations of filth and crime ; let us 
ascend, never wearying, to that calm blue ether of 
thought, where we shall find that strange and pleasing 
repose which, to the mind, accompanies pure and pro- 
fitable action. 

***** 
"Ease 'er!" "Stop-p 'er!" "Back 'er!" are the 
familiar sounds which, at early dawn, wake me from 



1 54 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

a brief but sound slumber, and announce to me our 
arrival in the harbour of Portland. This, one of the 
finest harbours in the world, was selected two or three 
years after, as the harbour to which the Great Eastern 
should make her maiden voyage. On the strength of 
this, the Mayor and Corporation built a fine large 
wharf, and the hotels let apartments at enormous 
prices weeks in advance of the great ship's promised 
arrival. Mighty was the wrath, and loud the cries for 
legal vengeance, in the good city of Portland, when, 
without assigning any cause, she went off to Xew 
York, and hi then fan harbour made no sign. And 
as if heaping injury still further on them, although 
the sea monster is now as familiar as a household 
word in New York, and has visited also Quebec and 
Halifax, she has never thrown her mighty shadow 
over the still waters of Portland harbour. Therefore, 
and it is useful to know it r few thmgs are more 
calculated to rile the inhabitants of this fair city, than 
any allusion, however distant, to the leviathan steam- 
ship. 

I landed about 6 a.m., and walked about an hour 
or so, until the time should arrive for the train's de- 
parture. I need hardly say that the first house I asked 
to see was that rendered sacred by the name of Long- 
fellow. How little did I dream then that the next 
time I should visit these now quiet streets I should 
find them filled with recruiting parties, and booths 
erected in the squares and market places with gaudy 
flags of invitation to the young men of Maine, to 
serve their unhappy country in her mad struggles for 
empire in the swamps of far Virginia. More dread 
sight than their own poet's skeleton in armour is this 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 155 

the skeleton of a great republic, donning the garb 
of war, and hurling its mad weapons against its own 
bosom. 

The first hotel in the city, I believe, is the Preble 
House, and I can answer for its comfort from my 
own later experience. The city is a fine and clean 
looking one, large, busy, and populous, and with many 
pretty drives. Its magnificent harbour is the winter 
port for the Canadian line of steamers, when the 
freezing over of the St. Lawrence makes it unnavi- 
gable. An Englishman, on visiting Portland and 
the magnificent state of which it is the capital, can- 
not but regret that, owing to the superior sharpness of 
Yankee diplomacy, or our politicians' ignorance of 
geography, we were cheated out of a district which 
would have been so fair a jewel in our colonial 
diadem. 

Being my first landing-place in the United States, 
I confess to a strong temptation to give a few of the 
ideas which impressed me with regard to Yankees 
and Yankee land. I am only deterred by the feeling 
that whatever I could say, would be merely a feeble 
endorsing of the clever sketches of such men as 
Dickens and Trollope. For it is a singular thing that 
when an Englishman visits the United States for the 
first time, he falls into one of two extremes ; either 
the extreme of admiration of everything in the insti- 
tutions and people before his eyes, like Messrs. Bright 
and Cobden ; or the other extreme of depreciating or 
ridiculmg everything and everybody. 

I confess, to so conceited a being as John Bull is 
when out of England, the latter extreme is more 
natural and general. And, unfortunately for the 



156 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Yankees, there are so many points in their national 
customs and institutions which are assailable to ridi- 
cule, that the traveller, predisposed in this way, may 
be a long time in the country without exhausting 
them, and ultimately leave with the impression that 
there is nothing admirable in Yankee habits, institu- 
tions, or country. 

But although almost every traveller in the Northern 
States carries away with him a feeling that the natives 
are, without exception, the most unpleasant people in 
the world ; yet, it would be a blind prejudice which 
would induce one to deny the existence of magnificent 
natural advantages and of some social customs, which 
might be engrafted on the old country with consider- 
able profit. There is but one thing in the United 
States which is utterly wrong — and of which one's 
most fervent wish is, that it may never cross the 
Atlantic in even the smallest item — and that is their 
entire political system as to be seen in city, county, 
state, and union, in individual character, or in na- 
tional results. Even in the palmy days of the Union, 
before its hearths and plains were desolated by war 
and death ; before its rulers became insane and irre- 
sponsible tyrants, and its people unresisting slaves, 
there was nothing amiable or lovely in the system of 
mob government which prevailed in every depart- 
ment. The pandering to electors' private interests at 
an election time was only less despicable than the in- 
flaming of their passions, when it was desirable to 
conceal from the public any political job or govern- 
ment error. No ! we in our constitutional freedom 
and under our happy government, can afford to pity 
our unhappy transatlantic brethren; but may the 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 157 

day be far distant when any one — save ranting De- 
mocrats or Chartist orators — shall suggest to an Eng- 
lish government to borrow even the most trifling in- 
gredient in the system by which the United States 
are ruled. 

But, as I have said, there are some social customs 
which we might adopt with advantage. And among 
these may be included the hotel arrangements pro- 
vided for the travelling public, in all cities of any 
size in the Union. And first, and to the Englishman 
most satisfactory in its novelty, is the fixed tariff of 
charges, by which you are enabled to calculate your 
bill to a cent, however long you may stay. 

The charge at the best hotels is always ten shillings 
a day; equal, before the days of greenbacks, to two 
dollars and a half. This included four meals a day ; 
the free use of magnificent saloons, reading-rooms, 
smoking-rooms; the entree of billiard and hair-cutting- 
rooms in the premises, with good bedroom and excel- 
lent attendance. In the best hotels in Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Washington, the cooking and 
bills of fare were superior to anything even in Paris, 
and you were not limited to fixed hours for your meals. 
Dinner was to be had from two to seven o'clock ; and 
the tables in the salle a manger were of a size just 
large enough to accommodate parties from four to 
eight or ten. 

In country hotels the unpleasant system of dining 
at a fixed horn- at one long table prevails ; and it is 
there that one sees most forcibly the unpleasant cus- 
toms of the Yankees, who, if a disagreeable people 
at most times, are particularly so when eating. But 
in the first-class hotels, this inconvenience is modified, 



158 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

and one may have privacy to a great extent as well 
as luxury. The extras, which in English hotels are 
the mysterious and heaviest part of one's bill, are re- 
duced to certain and known sums, and may be nil if 
the traveller chooses ; for all fluid extras, save what 
are called for at table, and which are checked by 
wine-cards, are paid for in ready-money at the bar, 
which is in these hotels always a large, well-fre- 
quented, and comfortable chamber. I confess, on 
looking back to many visits to the States, that I de- 
rived more pleasure and comfort from their excellent 
hotel system than from any other of their customs ; 
and while unwilling to make invidious comparisons, I 
feel called upon to award the highest honour in point 
of comfort and luxury, to the Revere House in Boston. 
This hotel, which was beautifully fitted up for the 
Prince of Wales, on the occasion of his visit to Ame- 
rica, belongs to a man who owns also the best hotels 
in the other large cities of the States, and has the 
supplying of travellers' wants, and the administering 
to their most Insurious wishes, reduced to a system 
the most perfect, and yet the most unobtrusive. 

And, oh ! English reader, in America, the waiter 
is reduced to his proper sphere. No smirking idiot 
brings you your bill, and remains hovering round you 
till you pay him his share of the plunder, although 
you have a large item for attendance staring you in 
the face on your receipted bill ; no chambermaid finds 
it necessary to be sweeping your bedroom-door at the 
last visit you make to your chamber ; no boots deserts 
his duties to hover with the porter and page on the 
door-steps, in the sure hope of douceur. No ; in the 
States you receive and pay your bill at the hotel 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 159 

office to an individual who expects a tip about as 
much as your banker ; your waiter appears, like your 
chambermaid, when wanted, but they are not obtrusive 
when you leave, nor strive to ease you of superfluous 
half-dollars ; and the boots cleans your boots, and no- 
thing more. Your wishes or complaints are attended 
to promptly at the office ; and your deposits there are 
as safe as in the Bank of England. You are wel- 
comed on arrival ; looked after while staying ; and 
not neglected when leaving. Is there nothing in all 
this which might be taught to the British bandit of a 
landlord, greatly to the traveller's advantage % 

I have delayed thus long over the subject of Ameri- 
can hotels, notwithstanding my resolution to avoid 
committing myself to any detailed reflections on 
Yankees and Yankeeism, merely because no subject 
more nearly concerns the traveller in any country 
than the question of his accommodation. There- 
fore, although in one sense the perfection of Yankee 
hotels may seem purely a national matter, yet in 
another sense it may be considered a cosmopolitan 
one. And apart from the mere considerations of 
comfort for the wearied traveller, or luxury for the 
delaying one, there is an undoubted pleasure to the 
old traveller, and an encouragement to the intending 
one, in being able to calculate to a fraction almost his 
probable expenses. It is commonly said that in Ame- 
rica one can travel with, comfort — including every- 
thing in the form of fares and hotel charges — for an 
average of 11. sterling a-day. And this is perfectly 
true, provided you are moderate in the point of wine, 
&c, stay a week at a time at a place, and do not in- 
clude boxes at the theatres, or innumerable cabs, 



160 \ OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

under the head of travelling expenses. Now, where 
in England can you travel at that rate ? You pay 
some 4,1. sterling for the occupation of a scat in a 
first-class railway carriage from King's Cross to 
Scotland, from nine o'clock in the evening of one 
day to four o'clock in the afternoon of the following. 
And if you hint at a dinner such as you get in 
America at any good hotel, why, your 17. a-day will 
not carry you as far as the cheese. No ! there is no 
doubt about the matter. England is the most de- 
lightful country in the world to spend money in — but 
for the poor man or the traveller let him rather go to 
Jericho. 

But it is time to proceed to the station of the 
Grand Trunk Railway — a most unimposing edifice — 
and take our tickets for Montreal. And as the 
Grand Trunk is no Yankee institution, but wofully a 
British one — a shame to its contractors, and a sorrow 
to its shareholders — I may, without breaking my re- 
solution, vent on it a few well-merited imprecations. 
Not that I am an indignant and suffering shareholder. 
I am thankful to say I was never trapped into lending 
money on the debentures of this unhappy company ; 
nor did I ever see shares of mine descend rapidly 
from a premium (if those of the Grand Trunk were 
ever at a premium) to a horrible irrecoverable dis- 
count. I speak my wrath merely as an outraged 
traveller — not a disappointed speculator — and that my 
anger is justifiable, I appeal to all who have ever been 
compelled to travel over its lines. 

The rate of travelling is miserably slow, not ex- 
ceeding, I should think, an average of ten miles an 
hour. The stoppages are so numerous as to make one 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 161 

imagine that the adventurous spirits who planned 
the stations must have studied a map of the district 
similar to that immortal map of Eden, prepared by 
Mr. Scadder for the information of Martin Chuzzle- 
wit, and such like immigrants. 

If an average of one traveller to every station be 
allowed, it is as much as can be done by even the 
most liberal computer, and surely this is not compati- 
ble with dividends. But the chief delay in travelling 
by this line, the greatest job of even Grand Trunk 
jobs, is that infamous imposition — Island Pond. Would 
you believe it — oh ! reader accustomed to fly in easy ex- 
press through the long hours of night by silent York 
and slumbering Carlisle ; wont to dine in Edinburgh 
and breakfast in London; or dine in London and 
breakfast in Paris — that travelling a short distance 
from Quebec or Montreal to Portland, leaving late in 
the afternoon, and with no plea of exhaustion to offer, 
this good company of ours shunts its trains of pas- 
sengers about ten o'clock at night into a desolate 
station called Island Pond, in the midst of an unin- 
habited country, and thus drive you and yours into 
a second-rate hotel — nolens volens — where you are 
fleeced of your dollars for infamous fare, although, 
fortunately, clean beds ; and then shot out at 5.30 a.m. 
to complete your miserable journey by noon, whereas 
you might have been easily at your destination by 
sunrise. And should you be so unfortunate as in 
your ignorance to take your ticket by the Grand 
Trunk on a Saturday, you will be dropped at Island 
Pond that night, and not allowed a chance of escape 
until Monday morning. And oh ! who can do justice 
to the horrors of a Sunday at Island Pond 1 

M 



162 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

I do not know what consideration the company re- 
ceives from the proprietor of the hotel for thus 
goading into his arms the passengers by both up and 
down trains, but it ought certainly to be something 
very handsome. The fare is of the rudest, and the 
independence of the attending damsels would make 
you swear, if it did not make you laugh ; and while 
waiting for your turn you have the satisfaction of 
seeing the guard of your train attended to at the same 
table most obsequiously, and evidently considered the 
greatest man of the company. 

The guard, or conductor as he is termed, is a very 
important official compared with our civil and decent 
guards at home. Only when the train is in motion 
does he bind on a small label, " conductor," as a badge 
of servitude ; and to save himself trouble he issues to 
the passengers supplementary tickets inscribed on 
which — inter alia — are his own christian name and 
surname. But although so high and mighty a man, 
our American conductor occasionally condescends, 
and should there be a vacant seat among your party 
he will not insist on an invitation, but will sit down 
in it, giving you unasked the benefit of his conversa- 
tion, and guessing enough for a dozen less important 
characters. A lady in the position of an unprotected 
female was put in the same carriage with me, and in 
the seat immediately next mine, by a gentleman, who 
was too young for her father and too attentive for a 
husband. After covering two or three of the nearest 
seats with small parcels, bonnet-boxes, and the other 
small et cetera, which the fair sex consider too valuable 
to trust out of their reach, he mentioned that he 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 163 

knew the guard, and would ask him to look after the 
ladv. Presently he returned accompanied by a stout 
party whose form was not yet degraded with the label 
proclaiming his office ; he led him up to the lady : 

"Mr. Smith," "Mrs. Brown;" "Mrs. Brown," 
" Mr. Smith." Then, with as much solemnity as if 
two dignitaries had been introduced by an official 
M.C., Mr. Conductor Smith held out his hand, and, 
as he shook that of the lady, mentioned that he would 
be happy to keep an eye on her during the journey. 
Oh ! Mr. Weller, sen., what would you have said to 
this ? Oh ! decent guards on any line at home, 
would you rather have gone through this dignified 
ceremony or accepted sixpence ? 

In addition to his legitimate trade, the innkeeper 
at Island Pond drove a thriving trade in exchange 
since the war commenced. Being situated just on the 
border between the States and Canada, this sharp 
fellow used to make Canadian passengers pay him 
their good dollars at par, while from Yankee travellers 
he would only accept the Greenback at its current 
rate of depreciation. The company was to be blamed 
for all this, not the man in whose way they threw the 
temptation ; and they will soon find that this iniqui- 
tous system of delay on a short journey will affect 
then* passenger traffic. As it is, hundreds of travellers 
who would otherwise use the Grand Trunk, go to 
Boston from Montreal by the Vermont Central and 
Lake Champlain Railroad, a comfortable and very 
fast rival line. 

Another fault in the Grand Trunk arrangements is 
the infamous nature of the refreshments offered at the 
MS 



164 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

different stations : Stale biscuits, disgusting beer, bad 
tea, with independent ruffians, male and female, to 
sell them. Can the company do nothing to remedy 
this ? But the recalling the different items of dis- 
comfiture in travelling by the Grand Trunk so swells 
the burden of my discontent, that I get incoherent in 
attempting to recapitulate them. I can only say that 
I have made many, many a journey, since my first 
on that line, and equally many on other lines, both 
Yankee and colonial, and the result has been to make 
me dislike the former more, and to raise unreasonably 
the merits of the latter, when compared with the Grand 
Trunk shortcomings. Even in the celebrated winter 
of 1861-2, when the whole energies of the company 
were called forth, and the remuneration they received 
was great in proportion, there were too many instances 
of neglect and want of foresight and preparation. 
Witness the 63rd Regiment, on its way west from 
Montreal, snowed up helplessly, when a little antici- 
pation and care would have so easily prevented it. 

The redeeming point in the line is the wonderful, 
unrivalled Victoria-bridge at Montreal, although, by 
the way, a company threatens this session to build 
across the Forth an equally magnificent structure. 
The melancholy feature in the Victoria-bridge is that 
it was the crowning point of the company's financial 
ruin, and dissipated for ever the first faint shadows of 
future dividends, which highly imaginative share- 
holders may have seen in the dim regions of possi- 
bility. 

But to return. The course of time brought me to 
Montreal, in spite of the Grand Trunk, and there I 
spent a few days. As I was destined some years 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 165 

afterwards to spend some months there, I shall, in 
describing it, talk of it as it is, not as it was in 1857, 
when only a few piers showed where the great bridge 
now is. 

Montreal is the commercial capital of Canada, and 
the military head-quarters. Its population is, I be- 
lieve, over 100,000, and the present garrison — I mean 
by this the garrison in 1862, only altered in 1863 by 
the substitution of a battalion of rifles for the 47th 
Regiment — the garrison present when I was quartered 
there, was composed of an Armstrong field battery, two 
garrison batteries of Artillery, a company of Engineers, 
a battalion of the Military Train, a battalion of Grena- 
dier Guards, and another of Scots Fusilier Guards, the 
1st battalion of the 16th Regiment of Foot, and the 47th 
Regiment. These, in addition to the staff, the commis- 
sariat, military store, and army medical department and 
corps, formed a tolerably large garrison, and was 
placed under the command of General Lord Frederick 
Paulet. The Commander-in-Chief, Sir Fen wick 
Williams, with his staff, also had their offices in 
Montreal. 

Although a fine city, and containing many wealthy 
and hospitable inhabitants, Montreal is about the 
least popular of our garrisons in the West. Almost 
all the amusements of the military are got up and 
maintained by themselves, and there is not the same 
sympathy between the civilians and the troops as 
exists' in the Lower Provinces, and in such cities as 
Quebec and Toronto. 

There is a sad deficiency of public places of amuse- 
ment, and such as are there are but indifferently 
patronised. The theatre is very poor, and there are 



166 OUli GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

not so many means of evening enjoyment or improve- 
ment as in towns quarter its size in the other provinces 
or in England. A holiday, therefore, witnesses the 
people thronging away in thousands by the various 
steamers which ply on the river in all directions, or 
the trains which ply east, west, and south, to places 
where novelty affords the wearied labourer a charm. 

The city itself is situated on the southern side of a 
large island on the St. Lawrence, and slopes gradually 
up from the water's edge to a mountain, from which 
the city derives its name. By a strange piece of dis- 
honesty, the poor mountain, in giving its name to the 
city, lost it for itself, and is only known as "The 
Mountain." The drive round it, and the view from 
the summit, are well worthy of the traveller's atten- 
tion, but would be more so were he not so persecuted 
on the subject by every native of the place. The 
houses are chiefly of white granite, and roofed with 
tin, so the appearance of the place in a bright day is 
remarkably clean and cheerful. The new streets are 
broad and handsome, the old ones are narrow, and 
remind one very much of the streets of old continental 
towns. The street of Notre Dame is the most 
important of the latter, that of St. James of the 
former. 

The public buildings are numerous, and some of 
them are beautiful. The most imposing one is the 
Roman Catholic Cathedral of Notre Dame, built in 
granite, a little in the stvle of its Parisian namesake, 
and containing, it is said, the largest bell on the 
American continent. The market of Bonsecours is a 
large and commodious building, where one can obtain 
food for the mind, as well as nourishment and clothing 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 167 

for the body, and the most beautiful flowers. A 
crowded market morning is a picturesque sight, the 
fanciful dresses of the French Canadians mingling 
with the more sombre garb of ordinary citizens, and 
the blue and scarlet of the military, all combine to 
produce that pleasing effect, which is often the result 
of involuntary confusion. 

The courts of law, the English cathedral, and the 
various convents, are among the other most prominent 
and attractive buildings. 

The various barracks are commodious, although 
most of them are buildings hired and improvised for 
the purpose at the time of the " Trent" disturbance ; 
and the public offices are respectable and roomy. 
But there is a considerable lack of accommodation for 
the officers ; so much so, that most of the regimental 
messes met at first in the various hotels in the city, 
while the members lived in lodgings. A propos of 
hotels, Montreal has not much to boast of in this re- 
spect, compared with Yankee towns. The best are the 
St. Lawrence Hall, Donegana's, the Ottawa, and the 
Montreal House. But these pale away into insigni- 
ficance, beside the many palatial mansions in the 
States ; the only point in which they resemble them 
being their charge ; and were these reduced, instead of 
the comfort, one might pardon them. The great point 
of inferiority in a Canadian hotel, is the style in 
which the meals are served. 

The best residences in Montreal are in the out- 
skirts, near the mountain; and many of them rival 
the best English villas in style, comfort, and elegance. 
There are many very wealthy men in Montreal, and 
to their public spirit are the inhabitants indebted for 



168 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the well-supported educational institutions, as well as 
most of the objects of interest in the place. 

The majority of the inhabitants are French Cana- 
dians, and of the balance not a few are Irish, 
so the Roman Catholic religion is the general 
creed among the people. At night, walking in the 
streets, it is difficult to fancy oneself in an En- 
glish town, so much more French is overheard 
than English. The streets have both the French 
and English names printed up ; the law courts con- 
duct their business in both languages ; and the very 
Houses of Parliament in this most indulgent colony, 
carry on their debates in a double tongue. The 
wealth of the Catholic Church is enormous, and this, 
coupled with the indulgences concerning their own 
laws, are good guarantees for the loyalty of the 
French Canadians. He would be a rabid republican, 
who would dream that a government, like that of the 
United States, would allow these indulgences to 
remain unrepealed, or that wealth uncoveted, were 
they in a position to attack the one or rob the other. 
But of this we hope to speak more fully in another 
chapter. The French element, however, breaks out 
in many singular ways in the community ; not the 
least striking of which is displayed in the national 
enmity, which has prompted the defacing of a large 
monument, erected, in one of the squares, in comme- 
moration of Nelson and his victories. 

There is a large, but only partly turfed cricket- 
ground in Montreal, rendered famous by having been 
the first arena on which the All England Eleven 
confronted their Transatlantic brethren. The game 
of cricket requires fostering in America ; and the 



HALIFAX TO MONTREAL. 169 

best nurses in our colonies there are the army and 
navy. The impulse given to this sport in Montreal 
by the recent large increase in her garrison is very 
apparent, and will, we hope, tide it over many years. 
But to make it as national a game in our colonies as 
in England, we must trust to the schools and colleges 
taking it up in the same spirit that our public 
schools do at home. Last season the annual match be- 
tween Eton and Harrow was played on Lord's Ground, 
in the presence of twelve thousand spectators. When 
such a day comes in America, we at home will have to 
look to our laurels ; and the progress of our National 
Eleven will change from a procession of easy victo- 
ries, to a succession of anxious and hard-fought 
combats. 

There are two strong objections to Montreal. They 
are the heat and consequent dust in summer and 
autumn, and the mud in spring. They are both 
equally abominable, unendurable, and any other 
protesting adjective which the reader's invention can 
apply. I am afraid to say how high the thermometer 
went, sometimes out of sight, I should think; and, 
by way of contrast, the mud was sometimes so deep 
in spring as to put the passengers almost out of sight. 

There are many pretty drives round Montreal ; 
and through the suburbs — where, by the way, you 
will meet that excellent university, known (from its 
founder's name) as the McGill College, whose pre- 
sent principal, a colonist himself, from Nova Scotia, 
Dr. Dawson, is well known to the scientific world as 
an eminent geologist. Out of consideration for your 
driver's scruples, you will have to drive round the 
mountain first, but if you are then allowed an option, 



170 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

allow me to recommend the drive to Lachine, the 
western extremity of the island. In one of those 
bright autumn days, so well known to American 
tourists, warm without being tropical, clear and 
bracing without a chill for even the most sensitive 
woman, there are few journeys can repay the tourist 
so well. As you drive along the river's bank, you 
meet it sometimes pouring along silent and sullen, 
sometimes as by magic changed into a laughing, leap- 
ing thing, full of life, and joy, and song. By-and- 
by, you come on islands of marvellous green, be- 
tween which you get a glimpse of the rapids of 
Lachine. Ere long, you see them in their majesty, 
tumbling in volumes as of white impetuous foam, 
and sending up to heaven, as incense from an altar, 
gay columns of glittering spray. 

Surrounding them is a varied panorama of great 
beauty, which fills the heart, and stills the voice, with 
emotions well known to the lover of nature. Unless, 
indeed, emotion gives way to excitement, as a 
steamer heaves in sight, ready to run the rapids ; 
and we utter shouts of half wonder, half amusement, 
as the throbbing vessel, half driven, half a free agent, 
rolls and tumbles among the heaving waters, like 
a porpoise on the sea in a summer day. 

And then you enter the little village of Lachine, 
with its thousands of logs lying in the river at its 
doors, waiting a purchaser, ere they shoot the rapids. 
There is a terminus here for a small line of railway 
from Montreal ; but as far as hotel accommodation 
goes, for the tourist, I would advise you to carry your 
own basket, and return to your own bed. 



171 



CHAPTER IX. 

THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 

A sudden splendcrar from behind 

Flushed all the leaves with rich gold-green, 

And, flowing rapidly between 

Their interspaces, counter changed 

The level lake with diamond plots 

Of dark and bright. 

Tennysox. 

Let me commence this chapter by cautioning any 
traveller in Canada, who desires either economy or 
enjoyment of the scenery, to avoid on every possible 
occasion the railways, not so much from their dis- 
comfort, as from the unhappy routes they take, giving 
you a minimum of landscape beauties at a maximum 
of charge. As a rule, steamers, which are built for 
passenger traffic on the lakes and rivers, are remark- 
ably comfortable, and the fare on board is equal to 
what one generally gets at Canadian hotels. The 
charges are moderate ; and one is saved frequently, 
in long journeys, the expenses of nightly hotel accom- 
modation, without the usual discomforts attending 
night-travelling by rail. You may get a clean, airy 
state-cabin for a trifle extra, and be just as comfort- 



172 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

able as in a hotel ; while the saving in expense, and 
in time, will be worthy the attention of even the 
more wealthy tourist. 

If it be a judicious advice, generally speaking, 
which recommends steamers in America in place of 
railway, there can be no doubt as to its worth and 
value, when applied to the particular route which it 
is intended to describe in the present chapter. 

As a rule, river scenery is monotonous. Now, do 
not let my English readers flare up at what they must 
consider a heretical statement. I do not by the word 
"river" allude to the streamlets which in Great 
Britain are dignified' by that name ; whose length is 
not great enough to weary, and whose banks are 
adorned with all the charms which the highest art 
can bring to assist nature. I mean those rivers 
which are the main arteries of continents, such as the 
Mississippi, the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Volga, 
whose wild banks are rank with a vegetation which 
is tangled with age, and stunted to the dwarf dom of 
a second childhood. On the waters of rivers like 
the Mississippi you are carried for days and nights 
past precisely the same style of scenery, beautiful at 
first to the eye, but soon sadly wearisome — so much 
so that your attention is eagerly attracted by some 
miserable log-hut, whose crazy timbers may vary the 
monotony of your limited horizon. There is really 
less sameness in a sea-voyage than in a journey on 
the Mississippi ; for, in the former, the waters them- 
selves show in the same day an infinite variety of 
mood and countenance, and reflect faithfully the 
changeable heavens. 

But the St. Lawrence is the exception, which, 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 173 

according to universal precedent, proves the asserted 
rule as regards the scenery of large rivers. For by 
its green waters, we have, alternately, noble efforts of 
man and the wildest grandeur of nature: here we 
come on a mighty city, in an hour we pass through 
the silent forest. Nor do we find here the dull 
sluggish waters of some rivers, nor the muddy hue of 
others ; this noble river is now calm, now laughing, 
now flowing peacefully between wide banks, anon 
compressing its silent and earnest waters in a deep 
dark channel ; sometimes studded with islands, some- 
times like a wide sea sleeping. 

Now-a-days, the class of tourists is so enormously 
increased, that, in addition to the many other incon- 
veniences consequent on this fact, the old and once 
limited class of travellers cannot, on leaving home, 
escape from the worry and annoyances which are 
often attendant on domestic life and home acquaint- 
ances. There is no seclusion now, even among Alpine 
glaciers ! and you may meet your tailor en famille 
in a Swiss valley. Belgium is becoming another 
Boulogne ; and you find yoiu- old neighbour in the 
western postal district, rearing his family in seclusion 
in the Quartier Leopold, on the rent of his London 
house. Paris is becoming a suburb of London, 
although S.M. L'Empereur thinks, I have no doubt, 
that it is the other way ; and that singularly English 
locality, the Palais Royal, with the institution yclept, 
even in Paris, Tattersall's, serves to remove the idea 
of a foreign country from the artless traveller's mind. 
Oxford men pull their four-oars on the Danube ; and 
your boot-maker takes Mrs. Balmoral and the little 
Balmoral's on a cheap family return ticket up the 



174 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Rhine from Rotterdam. Ladies go head-long into 
the interior of Africa, and the House of Peers may 
be found poking about the Nile; while subaltern 
officers write quarto volumes about Circassia and 
Georgia. Every owner of a boat over ten tons 
carries a party to the Mediterranean, and brings them 
back in six weeks with a thorough confidence in their 
knowledge of Italian politics, and a wrinkle or two 
on the state of Greece. Even Spain itself, land of 
the sullen hidalgo and vile cookery, cannot keep out 
the Saxon ; our A.R.A's. go there with as much re- 
gularity for subjects, as of old they went to the 
British Museum ; and, by way of contrast, we find 
merry Irish peers cracking their jokes within a few 
degrees of the Pole. 

A military tailor thinks less now of sending his 
young man to Malta and Gibraltar for orders, than he 
did formerly to Edinburgh ; and I defy you to name 
a cathedral in Europe, where, horn' after hour, open- 
mouthed John Bull may not be seen gasping over its 
beauties. As for the delightful fiction of going to 
the Continent to leam the languages, one has about 
as much chance of becoming a linguist by attending 
Sam's Coffee House, or the London Shades. 

Therefore — for there is a Q. E.D. contemplated 
after all these seemingly irrelevant premises, — as all 
Europe, and not a little of Africa and Asia, are ex- 
hausted for the traveller who wishes to have change of 
the scenes and acquaintances that greet him daily at 
the doors of Piccadilly, or by the railings round the 
Parks, why not strike out for another and fresher 
continent ; where you can study grander scenery in a 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 175 

day than at home in a year,? and where, if you do 
meet pretty often with unpleasant Yankees, they have 
this advantage over unpleasant Englishmen — you will 
find a novelty in them, and they will appeal to your 
organ of dislike by new and untried methods; although, 
I warrant you, with abundant success. 

It is so easy now to get to America : the Cunard 
boats, and the Great Eastern deposit you in Nova 
Scotia or New York in eight or nine days ; or in a 
day or two longer you can be deposited on the wharf 
at Montreal by the Canadian packets. If time be 
no object, a lift from a friend on board a man-of-war, 
or a run in a fast sailing-vessel, like the Roseneath, 
will land you in three weeks at Halifax. You may, 
when once across the Atlantic, vary the occupation of 
mere travelling, or sight-seeing, by occasional fishing or 
shooting excursions, for there are no game laws in 
British North America to prevent you, and as it is 
too large a district to preserve, it will be long ere the 
shadow of a gamekeeper falls across these hunting- 
grounds. The few regulations with regard to sport, 
which are enforced, are favourable to the sportsman ; 
as, for instance, the laws regarding sawmills, to pre- 
vent their injury to the fishing, and, of course, those 
relating to the seasons in which one may follow the 
various species of game. 

But should the object of the traveller merely be 
sight-seeing, he will find few trips more agreeable and 
compensating than a run up the St. Lawrence to 
Niagara ; and to a description of this our more imme- 
diate journey let us return. 

The steamers run in about twelve hours between 



176 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Quebec and Montreal, and continue their journey to 
Kingston and Toronto. I am wrong, however, there 
is a change of steamers at Montreal. 

Without any hurrying, and for a few dollars, you 
may travel thus in three days to Niagara. I think the 
best time is the end of September or the early part of 
October, when 

The maple is donning his scarlet robe, 

To usher the winter in : 
And the hemlock is stripping his garments green, 
While the birch shines out in a golden sheen, 

My love to win ! 

The autumnal tints of the American forests are too 
well known to require much repetition here. The 
best way I can describe them is in the language used 
by us all on first seeing them, that they would not be 
believed in a picture. The maple passes through 
every stage from green to the deepest crimson ; the 
birch has a yellow outrivalling Aberfeldie itself ; the 
underwood has the many hues of brown peculiar to 
the different eras of decay, and behind all, the deep 
everlasting green of the spruce forms a background 
worthy of the picture. 

But although for these reasons autumn is the best 
time on the St. Lawrence, the other seasons have also 
their charms. Nay, winter itself is not the same 
dreary season that it is at home. 

One may be worse off than under a good buffalo 
robe behind a fast-trotting horse, and as the sleigh 
glides smoothly along the surface of the frozen river, 
the bells ringing out on the horse's neck make a 
merry peal in unison with our own thoughts ; for our 
train of thought is keenly sensible to the physical in- 
fluences which affect the body. Thanks to the abun- 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 177 

dant spruce the eye does not rest on an expanse of 
bleak snow varied with bare trunks of melancholy 
trees : you meet few scenes in your lifetime more 
beautiful than a green forest with a white carpet, and 
perhaps the branches frosted with some recent fall of 
snow. TVere it not that the thermometer contradicts 
the idea, you would fancy it like some picture from a 
" Midsummer Night's Dream." 

Still I return to my first love — the green river in 
October. I started from Montreal by train to La- 
chine, there to take the steamer up the river; for 
although the rapids between these places allow of the 
steamer coming over them in her downward trip, she 
has to return humbly and ignominiously by a canal. 
Between Montreal and Kingston is undoubtedly the 
most beautiful part of the St. Lawrence. It is above 
the Island of Montreal that the junction of the 
Ottawa takes place, a river on whose bank a consider- 
able way up, is in course of erection the future capital 
of Canada. By this city hangs a tale illustrative of 
human weakness. 

Owing to the great superficial extent of the pro- 
vince, Canada has many towns of tolerably equal size, 
each the capital, as it were, of a district. None of 
these towns, however, are so large as to be indepen- 
dent of the benefits accruing to their trade from the 
presence of the Governor and Houses of Assembly. 
Naturally, therefore, there arose a rivalry among 
them, equal to that among the three goddesses of 
classic, memory. Of all the rivals for the honour and 
the dollars belonging to a metropolis, the three most 
important were Quebec, Toronto, and Montreal. 
Quebec has an ancient prestige, powerful fortifica- 



178 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

tions, and its position as a key to the river to offer in 
its favour. Montreal had wealth, population, and 
commerce on its side ; and Toronto had a more cen- 
tral position, and — well, it is difficult to say exactly 
what were the claims of this good city, although I have 
no doubt they were very great in her own estimation. 
For a long time they squabbled among themselves, 
and in Montreal some serious results followed ; so, as 
a temporary measure — as they were unable to apply to 
His Excellency the Governor-General the argument 
employed by Solomon with regard to the disputed 
baby — an agreement was made by which the sweets of 
a capital might be enjoyed in succession for, I think, 
four years at a time. The result was that there never 
could be any decent and permanent public buildings 
in any city, and the dignity of the governor was 
seriously compromised. When in Quebec in the be- 
ginning of 1862, I found His Excellency living in a 
house which, on first entering it, you imagined must be 
a post-office instead of a palace. What an unfortu- 
nate position for the representative of royalty ! con- 
founded in the public mind with letters paid and let- 
ters unpaid. It is devoutly to be hoped that he has 
not come in process of time to be regarded as a dead 
letter. At last, however, the eyes of these keen rivals 
were opened to the evils of the system, and they 
agreed to refer the case to the arbitration of a disin- 
terested party. Now, with the three goddesses a 
good-looking young man was called in, and the de- 
cision of this quarrel was as satisfactory as that of any 
woman's generally is — to wit, smiles without, and 
venom within ; to which was added in their case no 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 179 

end of trouble to the unhappy arbitrator, Paris. 
Taking warning by this, I doubt not, for Canada 
reads the classics, mark you — and Montreal and To- 
ronto have their universities, and good ones — the story 
goes on to say, that they resolved to throw the onus of 
selection on a woman, and that woman the Queen. 
Poor Queen ! how she must have wished that the 
wisdom of Solomon had been hereditary, and come 
down with the crown jewels and the family plate. 
But no ; her poor head had to puzzle over the claims 
of a number of places she had never seen, for a dig- 
nity she could hardly appreciate, and with a certainty 
of offending the majority. 

At last, with wisdom characteristic of her life, she 
took the atlas, and probably putting a pin into the 
centre of Canada — not the geographical centre, but 
the centre of civilised and commercial Canada — she 
resolved to ignore all other claims, and give the 
coveted honor to the town which should be found 
nearest the puncture. 

This happened to be a small place called Bytown, 
situated on the Ottawa, and at the farther extremity 
of the Bideau Canal, two circumstances which of 
themselves made it probable that the town would ulti- 
mately be large and important, even apart from any 
unexpected impetus such as it has received from Her 
Majesty's decision. From the way in which the ap- 
pointment of Bytown, now Ottawa City, as metro- 
polis, will open up the back country without injuring 
the remainder of the province, there is no doubt that 
the decision will prove worthy of the judge, but I 
fancy it staggered the most potent, grave, and re- 
n2 



180 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

verend seigniors of the Privy Council who witnessed 
it — a style of action not to be found in Vattel or 
Delolme. 

We now come, however, to the point of the whole 
as illustrative of human weakness. The disappointed 
candidates, wild with anger, dismissed pro tern their 
mutual hatred, and turning in concert on innocent 
and hitherto unknown Ottawa, commenced to rend it 
as dogs worry some unhappy cat. Loyalty and self- 
respect prevented them turning on their judge, but 
never did vicious school-girls take it out of a favourite 
at school more venomously, when the mistress' back 
was turned, than did, and still do, these beaten rivals 
take it out of poor Ottawa. The new capital of 
Canada may be called the Cinderella of the colony, 
and Victoria the good fairy who threw it in the way 
of the glass slipper. 

The public buildings now rising in Ottawa will cost, 
it is said, more than a million, another of the straws 
likely soon to break the back of the camel of Cana- 
dian finance, unless they get more population and less 
politics. 

But we are always flying off at a tangent from the 
river, and behaving as no cabin passenger with any 
sense of propriety should. The junction of the 
Ottawa with the St. Lawrence is marked by the dif- 
ferent colour of their waters ; for many miles they run 
side by side in the same channel, and can be readily 
distinguished. The colour of the Ottawa, owing to 
the immense amount of decayed vegetable matter it 
contains, is of a rich brown ; while that of the St. 
Lawrence — particularly as one approaches Kingston, 
where it runs over trap, is green. It may be as well 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 181 

to mention here, that the distance from Montreal to 
Quebec is one hundred and sixty-eight miles, from 
Ottawa three hundred and thirty-five miles. 

The scenery along the river is varied by many 
pretty hamlets, and even towns. Prescott and Og- 
densburgh are vis-a-vis to one another, and belong to 
England and the States respectively. As the river is 
the only line of demarcation, it is needless perhaps to 
say that when we had troops on the English side, de- 
sertion, stimulated by Yankee dollars, w T as easy and 
frequent. On the south bank of the river for some 
distance west of Montreal, near all the French settle- 
ments, the usual sylvan scenery is varied by pop- 
lars, whose tall, compressed forms afford a pleasing 
contrast to the pines, maples, and birches which are 
everywhere abundant. And it is to be remarked that 
the French Canadians, different although they are in 
many respects from their sires, still retain their taste 
in decoration ; so that, although the interiors of their 
cottages are more conspicuous for the absence, than 
the presence of cleanliness, yet the exteriors are easily 
distinguished from those of English settlers, by the 
gay flowers and creepers which surround them, and 
the other indescribable minutiae, whose sum total 
leaves the impression on the visitor's mind of great 
taste, and of considerable labour bestowed in its gra- 
tification. But alas ! however picturesque and admi- 
rable all this may be from the road, or the deck of a 
steamer, your feelings receive a sad shock should 
circumstances compel you to seek accommodation 
within. The smell of roses and geraniums may be 
exquisite, but hardly reconciles you to the stuffy and 
fluffy smell of the inhabitants and their apartments ; 



182 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

and however graceful a creeper may be on a portico, 
they are irritating and loathsome in a bed, when they 
assmne the form of — but oh ! spare me further 
recital. 

The Thousand Islands, as they are called, occupied 
no small portion of a day in passing ; and even at 
this distance of time that vision of beauty rises before 
my mind with a clearness and vigour, such as attend 
the impressions left on the mind of childhood by 
startling events of great joy or soitow. Could one 
imagine a beautiful dream or poem realised in nature, 
one could more easily conceive this marvellous scene. 
There are passages in Tennyson which reminded one 
of these islands, and in some of our Scottish lakes 
they are faintly shadowed forth, but not Helen's 
Isle can approach in beauty the simplest of those 
bright jewels, which are so profusely scattered over 
the surface of this proud river. 

Truly the beauties of that day were a brighter dream 
than one could hope to dream in slumber. Our 
vessel, as it threaded its way through the maze of 
islands, almost touched their steep green sides, and 
the branches of the trees which crowned them 
almost brushed us, as we leant over the bulwarks in 
silent admiration. There were many varieties of 
waterfowl in the river round us ; but not the least 
pleasing part of the picture was the utter wildness 
of the islands, the absence of any signs of man's 
handiwork or habitation, the untouched purity of 
their pristine beauty. For there is a strange calm 
comes over man as he finds himself with nature 
alone. 

Now, to many this idea will be designated by the 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 183 

title " bosli." Your eminently practical man will 
say that a turnip-field is a far more picturesque and 
soothing sight than a bramble-covered rock ; and, 
buttoning up his pockets, will say that, for his part he 
always considers sentimentality and swindling to be 
twin-brothers. Your unimaginative friend of another 
class, that class, I mean, who have but one idea, one 
care, and one study, and that is u ego" — will say that 
" Haw ! for their parts, haw ! This sort of thing 
was all doosed fine in books, but haw ! my dear fel- 
low ! where do you get your gloves ?" And pretty 
little Minnie, she will say, clapping her hands : 

" Oh ! mamma ! what a charming place for a pic- 
nic ! and I could wear that new muslin, and the hat 
that Charles liked so much, and you could put your 
dear old feet in rubbers, and we would have such a 
hamper ! But oh ! it would be so stupid without any 
gentlemen, so I am afraid we should have to make 
these dear islands ( maris habitation ' for an after- 
noon at any rate!" 

Well, in answer to all this, I have merely got to 
say, that if I could get these two gentlemen and the 
charming Minnie on board a river steamer in the 
Thousand Islands, I would wager that, for half an 
hour at least, Mr. Consols would cease to be practical, 
Mr. Butterfly would feel a tightening across the 
chest different from any ever produced by a tailor's 
misfit, and even chattering little Minnie would be 
quiet for a minute or two, and forget that such a 
thing as muslin existed in the world. 

There were many, many hard-looking men on board 
with me that day, and many of the other sex, whose 
hearts had been sadly tried by this life's worry, and the 



184 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

cares of daily bread, which look so small on paper, but 
which are sad things for aging ns, and knocking the 
romance out of our nature. But I doubt if there was 
one among them all who did not feel softened by the 
scenery around us ; whose face did not lose for a mo- 
ment the look of anxious worry, and wear something 
approaching the calm, placid look, which Death leaves 
when he draws away the soul. All their souls had gone 
out, as with a great longing to Nature the great mother, 
as a lost and weary child falls on the loving maternal 
bosom, which yearns over her refound treasure. And 
in some eyes, whose daily sparkle is due to keen, hard 
love of gain, I am not sure I did not see a tear. You 
have seen, reader, in a crowded, festive room, one 
quiet pensive face, whose spirit is far away in thought, 
and whose owner is for the time all unconscious of the 
throng, and the music, and the dance ; so on the deck 
of that plodding steamer, we stood gazing our souls 
out in unconscious love and admiration of the beauty 
before us, and recking not that we were units in a 
motley crowd of passengers. 

In the prairie territories of America there is expe- 
rienced by the traveller and the hunter, a strange 
sensation which has been called the prairie fever. It 
is a sweet and exhilarating feeling, absorbing for a 
time all recollection of the past, and killing all anxiety 
about the future. It is a maddening enjoyment of 
the present, arising from lightened spirits, and the 
grandeur of surrounding nature. In the more settled 
parts of the continent, where the advances of civilisa- 
tion have furrowed the wild meadows, and the flowery 
prairie is wrinkled with the cares of toil, yet in the 
forest and on the lakes, something approaching to this 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 185 

feeling is entertained. In tracing out the origin of 
this state of mind, a metaphysician might discover 
properties and faculties of whose existence he was 
not formerly aware. We doubt whether any mental 
philosopher has devoted his attention to the subject ; 
or, if he has, whether he has not merely attributed it 
to some excitement of the perception of the sublime 
and beautiful ? 

But, may it not be otherwise? Is it rash to say, 
that away in great solitudes, fresh from the Creator's 
hand — where man's toil has not defaced, nor his dul- 
ness polluted — the mental faculties may acquire a 
higher power over the body, and somewhat loosen his 
faculties ? Is it rash to say that in the flowers of 
God's garden, in the trees and rocks of his untouched 
mountains, there may be left an impress of His hand 
which affects the spirit of his creature % As the sound 
of the trumpet inspires the old and weary war-horse, 
or the strains of some melody heard in youth affects 
the hardened sinner in the midst of crimes, may not 
this music of nature, pure and fresh from God, in- 
spire in some way the soul of man % 

Thoughts of God's majesty, and of infinity, make 
our giddy brains reel ; yet with these same spirits we 
are to enjoy or endure eternity. Must there not, then, 
be some latent faculty, which, when the soul is freed 
from the body, shall better comprehend all these ; 
and which, even now at odd times, in disease or deli- 
rium — or as of old in inspiration — throws glimpses 
into us of the mighty unknown and unf athomed ? 

May not prophecy or inspiration, be merely the 
momentary loosening of this mortal coil, to let some 
mysterious dormant faculty have play? And may 



186 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

not some such loosening come by the sudden sight 
and enjoyment of a portion of God's works, as they 
lie before our vision, fresh and unsullied ? 
# # # # * 

But this sort of thing must be put a stop to ; once 
let a Scotchman back to his metaphysics — and you 
require a heavy bit to hold him. O, outraged public ! 
you shall be that bit : so, after this little specimen of 
what the Yankees would call " high-filutin" compo- 
sition (I don't answer for the spelling), I shall come 
back from mental faculties and prairies to my camp- 
stool on the deck of the river steamer. 

Let me look back and see where I was when I 
mounted my metaphysical Pegasus. I see, yes ; we 
had alluded to some water-fowl. Now, considering 
the dearth of ornithological life in American forests, 
to which we alluded in a former chapter, these 
wild-fowl were not the least pleasing part of the pic- 
ture we studied. I have often thought that the trans- 
atlantic woods realise beautifully in one respect, what 
England will be, when — according to terrified corre- 
spondents of the Times — the small boys shall have 
shot the last sparrow. And yet, with all this lack of 
small birds, what will these same correspondents think 
when they are told that in Halifax there exist not a 
few ornithophagites, whose prey is a bird whose name 
is Eobin, although in point of nature, wise men put it 
among the Turdince ? 

The trees, even on the St. Lawrence, are not large, 
save where now and then a bleached trunk has thrown 
out its dead limbs to heaven; naked, except where 
here and there some drooping moss, of the nature 
called old men's beards, is floating about them in the 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 187 

wind. Rearing themselves in hoary majesty above 
the younger forest, these ancient monarchs remind 
us of some Lear, whom storm and hurricane have 
stripped of his garments, leaving but some bleached 
and tattered fragments hanging about his withered 
form. 

The fires in America are so frequent, more espe- 
cially hi the woods round the settlements, that one 
may travel miles and miles without meeting any 
tree larger than you meet in our English parks. I 
grant you, when you do meet a genuine forest giant, 
he does out-Colossus your home experiences ; but, as a 
rule, the hand of fire and of the woodman are too de- 
solating to spare any such for your admiration. For 
days and nights, ay, even weeks and months, you may 
see in our American colonies the horizon darkened 
with clouds of smoke by day, and illumined with 
lurid glare by night, from the burning woods. Should 
the scene of the conflagration be near, it amply repays 
the inquirer to go and inspect it, keeping cautiously, 
however, to windward. There are few sights more 
wildlv beautiful than the flame dancing and crawling 
with forked tongue among the brush and the dry 
grass, till, coming on a fresh spruce-tree, it glides like 
lightning up among the branches, whose resinous 
spines offer its cruel maw a dainty morsel; and soon 
all that is left is a black and charred trunk. 

But the steward is going his rounds to ascertain 
who propose dining. The ladies are first stowed away 
at the dinner-table — no extraordinary or superfluous 
precaution with a number of hungry male Yankees on 
board — and then the gentlemen are disposed of. I 
was more impressed with the inferiority of the Yankee 



188 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

to all other nations, in point of manners at table, on 
this occasion than on any previous. "We had certainly 
one or two outrageous specimens on board, and to one 
of them I was indebted for learning the origin of a 
custom in the States which had hitherto bewildered 
me. I refer to the arrangement by which each guest 
at a table d'hote, however extensive, has a saltcellar to 
himself, but no spoon, the true Yankee preferring to 
use his knife. The circumstance was as follows : 

Immediately opposite me was a Yankee of virulent 
vulgarity in point of eating, and on his right a timid, 
nervous, but gentlemanly Canadian. By some acci- 
dent, the timid gentleman's saltcellar had got adrift, 
and he was at his wit's end to get one, knowing the 
manners of the country better than I did. He seemed 
diffident of asking his voracious neighbour, whose 
knife and fork were generally three or four inches 
deep in his mouth, and whose whole soul was devoted 
to the solution of the problem of devouring the 
greatest possible quantity in the least possible time, 
and without any effort at mastication. At length, 
goaded on by the insipidity of his diet — boiled veal, 
or some such delicacy — our timid friend addressed the 
Yankee : 

" I beg your pardon, my dear sir, but if you will 
excuse me, will you have the kindness to pass the 
salt?" 

What do you think, reader, was the answer of our 
polished Yankee, crushing and prostrating our nervous 
little friend ? 

" Sir," said he, with mouth full of viands, " I guess 
there's sarvants ! " 

As bad this, is it not, as the Yankee who, seeing a 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 189 

solitary dish of peas on the table in some hotel, anti- 
cipating every one else, reached over, and, seizing the 
dish, emptied the whole on his own plate, remarking 
at the same time, in a cheerful voice, 
" I reckon I'm a whale at green peas ! " 
I shudder as I recal some of the awful scenes I 
have witnessed, in my travels, at American public 
tables. Some are too fearful to commit to paper. 
One individual near me, on one occasion, having 
been longer over his soup than his neighbours, saw 
with horror that a dish of potatoes in his immediate 
vicinity was in a fair way of being out of sight before 
he should be ready to help himself. What do you 
think he did ? Ladling the soup to his mouth with his 
right hand, he reached out his left towards the vege- 
tables in question, and, selecting two or three of the 
best, placed them on the table-cloth beside him ready 
for use. 

I collapsed — I could hardly go on with my dinner ; 
and there he sat alternately gobbling his food and 
chuckling over his 'tarnation 'cuteness. From the 
pace at which Yankees eat, I was generally a shock- 
ing laggard at meals, but on this occasion I was worse 
than usual; yet I can honestly say that never was 
sweeter compliment breathed by lover into his mis- 
tress's ear than the words uttered to me through his 
nose by that Yankee brute, with a smile of compla- 
cency and satisfied superiority : 

" I reckon, stranger, that you hail from down 
east." 

O dear country in the east ! O land of courteous 
men and well-ordered houses ! "May I never forget — 
even in the midst of the beauties and temptations of 



190 OUK GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

other lands — the proud feeling that swelled my heart 
that clay, when I thought that indeed I did hail from 
down east ! 

There were the usual Americanisms at the table 
that day — little dishes of sweets and of pickles, eaten 
as they were arranged, promiscuously, and the cheese 
eaten invariably with tarts of all sorts. The absence 
of beer and wine at dinner, at most American hotels 
and on board their boats, seems odd at first to an 
Englishman ; but it is not to be taken as an evidence 
of national temperance : for as surely as these gentle- 
men drink water now, so surely, in about five minutes, 
will they be in the bar, swallowing hot drinks and 
iced drinks, with many names, but one purpose — to 
stimulate. However, chacun a son gout, I remember I 
called for beer, to the amazement of my neighbours, 
and drank it to the satisfaction of myself; nor did I 
find it interfere with my enjoyment and appreciation 
of the scenery when I returned on deck. But, having 
some national prejudices in favour of mastication and 
salivation, as being conducive to digestion, I and some 
good Canadians were left speedily to ourselves, while 
the Yankees rushed from the table to undergo, I 
should think, the worst description of heartburn, 
acidity, and indigestion. No wonder that in the 
States quacks prosper, and that every newspaper is 
filled with testimonials from eminent clergymen, all 
residing in places ending with ville, recounting an 
immediate cure, by one box of somebody's pills, of in- 
digestion of thirty years' standing. 

There is something positively awful in the way and 
the pace at which Yankees eat. It was long before 
I could so concentrate my thoughts as to be indepen- 



THEOUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 191 

dent of my neighbour at the dinner table ; and until 
I could do so, I found myself daily getting into a 
regular fever at meal-times, so much did the violent 
hurry of Yankees eating flush and flurry me. 

By the time I got again on deck, evening was fast 
closing in, for there is little or no twilight in America; 
and we saw in the grey sky, the night hawks darting 
about with their swift and bat-like flight. And we 
saw the last light disappear in the West as we en- 
tered the sleeping Ontario, a fit end to so glorious a 
river ; appropriate after its alternate rapids and calms, 
its gay scenes, and silent blanks, as is the great 
sleeping sea of death, after the alternate joys and 
sorrows of that ceaselessly flowing river, which we 
call Human Life. 

As we gaze, gradually the struggling moon and 
twinkling stars awaken smiles and rays on the surface 
of the lake, as when on a sleeping infant's face, 
flit dreams, and smiles, and blushes ; while the low 
hum of the wind among the tress sounds like some 
subdued "Kyrie eleison," in the vast temple whose 
roof is heaven, and whose walls are the ends of the 
earth ! By-and-by as we near Kingston, we see, 
as stars on the border of some great cloud, the lights 
peeping out from some student's dark chamber, or 
the windows of some House of God. 

And then we are abruptly recalled to everyday 
life, by the falsetto voice of the boy, through whom 
the captain communicates his wishes to the grimy 
men who regulate the heart's palpitations in our now 
gently moving vessel. Noiv we can distinguish, in 
frenzied conclave, the yelling cabmen of Kingston, 
trying with their whips to mesmerise the passengers 



192 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

while ret many yards from the wharf. Falling a ready 
victim to the blandishments of an awful ruffian, who 
overcharged me to an extent unheard of even in the 
annals of cabmen, I found myself ultimately in the 
interior of some house of entertainment in Kingston, 
if such a word as entertainment can be applied, save 
in mockery, to so sad and depressing a city. With a 
word or two on this abode of melancholy, I shall con- 
clude this wandering chapter. 

Kingston, like every housekeeper who seeks an en- 
gagement in a widower's family, has seen better days. 
At least, for the sake of its inhabitants, we hope this 
frequent assertion of theirs is true ; for it could 
hardly fall upon worse or more gloomy days. I do 
not know the exact period in the history of Kingston 
when melancholy marked it for its own ; but if one 
may judge by the length of grass in the streets, it 
can hardly be within the recollection of the existing 
generation. A walk in its most exciting locahties is 
about as cheerful a proceeding as a lounge in some of 
the dismal streets in Marylebone near the New-road, 
where the only individual you ever meet belongs to 
the class whose energies in life are devoted to reliev- 
ing their burdened brethren of the upper classes, of 
their " old clo !" The merry people of Kingston (if 
there are any) must keep strictly indoors, and confine 
their jocularity to the back rooms ; for all you meet 
in the streets are as dismal as, I was going to say, 
undertakers, but they are proverbially merry, so I 
shall substitute school-boys the first week after the 
holidays, or lovers when they first know they love. 
I reached my hotel with a horrible feeling that I had 
no right to be happy, if, indeed, I had any business 
to be alive ; and Lord Lovel, in his first appearance 



THROUGH THE THOUSAND ISLES TO KINGSTON. 193 

in public, is a -cheery and jovial fellow compared with 
what I must have looked when, in a meek voice, I 
asked for a bedroom candle. As for any fluid refresh- 
ment on that occasion, I should have felt no sur- 
prise had I been informed that vinegar was the usual 
beverage in Kingston, and their most intoxicating 
drink a black draught. 

Since those days of my melancholy visit, Kingston 
has been again included in the list of " Our Garri- 
sons in the West." First, the 62nd, and now the 
47th Regiment have been sent to warm the cockles 
of the Kingstonian heart. And if it be true that 
one body cannot emit caloric without losing it itself, 
then, knowing what I do of the fathomless abyss 
of that city's cold gloom, I shudder when I think 
of the sufferings there of Her Majesty's troops. No 
wonder that my old friends of the Wiltshire Regi- 
ment could stand it no more than a year ; the wonder 
was that suicide had not become a daily occurrence 
among them after the first week. It speaks well for 
the internal heartiness and cheerful souls of the 
Sixty-second that they stood it as they did. And 
if I have any inquisitive reader who would like some 
details of the great melancholy that enwraps this 
good city, let me answer him by illustration. Con- 
cluding that there must be some city sights, at all 
events, if no city joys, I asked what I should find 
most worthy of inspection. After some hesitation, I 
was told "The Market." I shivered; for well I 
know that where this is the chief thing in a city, that 
city is to be shunned. In ten minutes my brushes 
were restored to my bag, and the echo of my footfall 
fell on Kingston no more. 





194 



CHAPTER X. 

ER, EEFE1 
ND HAM! 
OR TWO ON THE LAEJ:S. 

From the great lakes of tlie north land. 

Hiawatha. 

Being heavily depressed with my brief stay at 
Kingston, I was hardly in a fit state to appreciate the 
scenery of Lake Ontario. Fortunately, being night, 
and the moon rising late and dimly, one did not feel 
so imperatively called upon to remain on deck and 
study the beauties of nature. So I was amusing my- 
self, after two or three hours, in the saloon, of silent 
wretchedness, by arranging my rug and great-coat to 
look as much as possible like a large collection of 
magnificent robes, and by placing my portmanteau so 
cunningly as to upset any midnight assassin who 
might think of making a permanent blank in my 
family circle. Having succeeded, as I fondly hoped, 
to an admirable degree, I was regarding complacently 
my handiwork, when I was unexpectedly allowed a 



TORONTO AND HAMILTON. 195 

proof of the success of my labours. The door sud- 
denly opened, and my little nervous Canadian, of the 
last chapter, with whom I had sworn eternal friend- 
ship, plunged headlong into my cabin, and, falling 
artlessly into my trap, and over my portmanteau, was 
soon lost as to his head under the pillows of my berth, 
and left behind him no sign, save a couple of quiver- 
ing legs. As soon as my laughter subsided, I 
extracted him, as a dentist might a stubborn tooth, 
and placed him, end on, on my indiscriminating 
luggage. 

As he sat there, gasping and flushed, and unable 
to give any connected utterance to his ideas, I was 
horror-struck to hear him half scream, half whisper, 
the word " Jupiter" several times, but always in a 
succession of hyphens, u Ju-ju- jup-iter," as if he were 
endeavouring to name a favourite sweetmeat of 
British youth. 

I thought of Quintus Curtius Rufus, with his fa- 
vourite oaths of " Mehercule," and those referring to 
one Jupiter Amnion, and I wondered whether my 
little friend had been at McGill College in his boy- 
hood, and therefore became classical in his blasphemy 
and imprecations. But, as his breath came back, he 
kept raising his finger in a devotional aspect, as he re- 
ferred to the premier of Eoman Mythology, so I be- 
gan to think of Wilkie Collins's novel " Antonina," 
with the enthusiastic Pagan, and wondered whether, 
in my then prostrate condition, my small friend — 
Pagan himself — saw in me a fit subject for conver- 
sion to the worship of the cloud-compelling deity. At 
last, after shaking him, hitting him in the back, and 
waving mystically in his face my brandy-flask, he be- 
o 2 



196 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

came more intelligible, and was enabled to state that 
the cause of his commotion was the brilliancy of the 
planet Jupiter, as seen from the deck of our steamer. 
Poor little man ! I do not know if he knew one 
planet from another, but he dragged me on deck to 
show me one which he seemed certain was the indi- 
vidual whose name stuck so in his throat. It certainly 
was a most brilliant one, throwing a wake like a young 
moon, and my admiration was so unfeigned as to 
make him dance round me in his glee and pride, as if 
instead of being a planet it were a private firework let 
off by himself, and one whose brilliancy was entirely 
due to him. Having feasted my eyes on it, I turned 
them, as a second course, on the dark horizon which 
bounded the great lake, and became so absent in its 
contemplation, that I hardly heard the conversation of 
my excited little friend, who, as if astronomy were a 
thirsty science, kept muttering the word "Licker!" 
There was not so much to occupy one's mind in the 
actual scenery, as in the thoughts to which our situa- 
tion inevitably gave birth. Here we were on a mighty 
inland sea, a magnificent fresh-water ocean, in the 
very heart of a continent, raised many feet above the 
level of the sea itself, but suffering from the same 
species of disturbances, in the form of storms and 
tempests. There was something grand in the sight of 
these mighty lakes, something elevating in the ideas 
they gave birth to. But how could a man think of 
scenery with a little creature dancing round him, as if 
a victim to St. Vitus's dance, and using every means 
short of force to drag him to the bar — not of judg- 
ment, but of drinks. 

What use would it have been attempting to elevate 



TORONTO AND HAMILTON. 197 

with grand thoughts the mind of a being who pre- 
ferred being elevated with a mint julep ? The very 
woods round Ontario, and the night breeze rippling its 
waters, echoed mournfully " Cui bono V There was 
a miserable owl giving vent in the woods, near which 
we were steaming, to a melancholy hoot, and I might 
have as well recited Martin F. Tupper to it, in hope of 
its detecting some poetry in that dreary writer, as 
called my clamorous little friend's attention to the 
silent poem written in the scene around us. So, as 
the next best thing to winning is losing with a good 
grace, I yielded to his solicitations, and we adjourned 
to the bar. Here, while watching the concoction of a 
sling, I listened with some amusement to the boasting 
of two or three Yankees, who, as is usual when 
drinking, were talking of their country. Every sip of 
spirits they swallowed soon steamed out of their mouth 
hi the form of grandiose bunkum, so outrageously pre- 
posterous, that one could hardly help smiling, if not 
laughing outright. One amusing feature in the 
Yankee character is, if you are drawn into an argu- 
ment, as I regret to say my bump of combativeness 
frequently did with me, that in talking of the United 
States, they always call it u my country," with the 
accent on the pronoun instead of the substantive. 
One would think they each claimed credit for having 
made then* country what it is, or that they were 
afraid a stranger might offer to claim some property 
in it. If the latter, may I assure them that such an 
idea is the furthest from an Englishman's mind, 
who has once known the vices and follies which they 
imagine virtue and wisdom. 

The Yankee style of argument is in a high degree 



198 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

entertaining, and ends either in a passion or some 
wildly characteristic statement. I was engaged in an 
argument with an intelligent Yankee on one occasion, 
the subject of which was slavery. Being before the 
day of secession, he thought it his duty to defend this 
domestic institution merely because it was recognised 
in some parts of " his " country, and, considering the 
weakness of his case, he fenced and parried admirably. 
As a clencher, I ventured to remark that the Bible 
was rather against it — a remark I made with some 
diffidence, because, really, there is very little in the 
Scriptures against slavery. Fortunately for me, my 
disputant did not know his Bible so well as he did the 
number of stars and stripes in his country's banner, 
so he assumed from my statement that it was dead 
against him. How do you think he got out of it ? 

" Watt, sir; the Bible ai'nt a bad book: no! sir! 
but it was written at a period when the world was a 
kinder young and slow. Niggers were meant to be 
slaves all along ; but it were left to the 'Mexican mind 
to find it out !" 

What could I do after such a statement ? Just 
what you would do, reader — laugh and give it up. 

However, this chapter professed at starting to be 
descriptive, in a small degree, of Toronto, Hamilton, 
and the lakes ; so we must not stay in the bar all the 
time. We reached Toronto, which is at the other 
extremity of Lake Ontario from Kingston, early on 
the following morning ; but just too late to catch the 
steamer Zimmerman, which crosses to Niagara from 
that city; I had, consequently, some little time to 
spend in Toronto and inspect its lions. 

Its lions — like the serpents of the Egyptian magi, 



TORONTO AND HAMILTON. 199 

which were made a mouthful of by that of Moses — 
were swamped utterly by one of their number, at least 
in my eyes — the devouring fiend being the University 
of Toronto. This is the institution par excellence of 
Canada, and would confer honour upon any country. 
Scholars at its head producing scholars in annual 
batches, and circulating by their means a lofty tone, a 
chaste learning, a cultivated intellect throughout the 
whole of Canada. What destiny or purpose, save one, 
can be nobler in a country ? Alas, alas ! in the vulgar 
eye, the phrase, " the schoolmaster is abroad !" is as- 
sociated merely with a wider suffrage and a broken 
tenth commandment; literature is made a stepping- 
stone to a vote, and the education of the poor is in- 
tended to be a first step towards the spoliation of the 
rich? Let us turn away from such a system of 
schooling ; let us turn into classic shades which shall 
not be an ambush for the spirits of revolution, and 
chartism, and anarchy; let us step into the calm 
abode of pure learning, of beneficial communion with 
the Past, of healthy preparation for the active Future. 
Oh ! dear Homer, and genial Horace ! oh ! quaint 
Curtius, and eloquent Thucydides ! oh ! dear, con- 
ceited Cicero, and artlessly-exaggerating Herodotus ! 
better a year with you and yours than a bustling life- 
time in the Little Peddlington of our working lives, 
if we wish to store our minds with great truths, and 
not weaken them with a thousand little drains in the 
Present ! Oh ! my brethren in the West ! do not let 
your boys be men ere the down is on the lip, and the 
iron in the soul ; they will age soon enough, and the 
rust will be in their spirits, and the sorrow will brood 
crushing in their hearts. 



200 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

For a year, a year yet, or more, let them sit at the 
feet of these grand old masters, whose very sentences 
ring out in young ears like the blare of a war-trump : 
let these large eyes, whose sockets know yet no crows- 
feet, and whose tears pass swiftly away, let them gaze 
yet awhile into the Past, along whose corridors shall 
be found the noble lessons that make the Present — 
honour, and the Future — hope ! Ah ! these days in 
college halls, these hours of generous emulation, as 
between children rivals for a father's love, how soon 
they pass away ! 

Not school-days, with their petty tasks and tyran- 
nies, are the summer-time of youth, but those gentle, 
dreamy days when one is led — not driven — to the 
fount of classic learning ; when one begins to under- 
stand what has been as yet but a method of dreary 
discipline, and a melancholy alloy in schoolboy 

joys- 
Alma mater! — sweet and kindly words — what a 
cruel day it seems on looking back, when from thy 
gentle arms we were thrust into the seething whirl- 
pool of life, to struggle without sympathy, to sink 
without a word of sorrow from those around, or — ah ! 
worse yet! — to succeed amid envy, and heart-burn- 
ings, and chilling hatred. Which is worse in our 
weary life — success or failure ? The one looking out 
on a sea of beaten and angry rivals, the other gazing 
up from a dark abyss of blighted hopes and thwarted 
energies % None, none of this was there in the genial 
circle that studied at the feet of the mighty Past, in- 
stead of toiling in the littleness of a circumscribed 
Present; that long-remembered circle in those long- 
regretted halls, that pure-souled company of the young 



TORONTO AND HAMILTON. 201 

in their wanderings through, the solemn-speaking 

chambers of the Past ! 

* * * * 

Toronto is pleasant in itself, but pleasanter when 
placed in contrast with Kingston. It is a bustling 
and wealthy city, with a community which is a happy 
mixture of the professional, the literary, and the com- 
mercial. There is an element in it which might be 
spared in this as in most of our colonial towns — I 
mean the political element. The press of Toronto is 
able and well-conducted ; but in political matters it 
is highly Yirulent. It leads a large party of the voting 
public, and one of the papers is, I believe, the organ 
of a large party in the House of Assembly. Although 
naturally somewhat blinded by prejudice in matters 
relating to Canada, the Toronto press has frequently 
issued articles displaying wide, liberal, and most truth- 
ful views on the subject of our colonial system ge- 
nerally. 

The city itself, as viewed from the water, lies very 
low ; but is a clean and cheerful, as well as an impo- 
sing, place. As a military quarter, it is much liked ; 
and it is at present garrisoned by an Armstrong field- 
battery, a garrison battery, and the 30th Regiment 
of Foot. Its importance as a garrison, in event of 
war with the States, would be very great, owing to 
the importance to us of the command of the lakes. 

From Toronto to Niagara, one may proceed by two 
routes — one direct across by steamer to Fort Niagara, 
with a rail journey of a few miles to the Falls, and 
the other going round by land on the rail to Hamil- 
ton, and on to Niagara. The former of these routes 
was the one adopted by me, so any remarks I have 



202 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

to make on Hamilton, will be brief and second- 
hand. This city has acquired a most unpleasant no- 
toriety, within the last year or two, by some repudi- 
ation of which it was guilty in the matter of debts 
incurred chiefly to English creditors, for the enlarge- 
ment and beautifying of their streets and buildings. 
The circumstances are not well known to the author, 
but it is sad to see a system which was considered as 
peculiar merely to Pennsylvania and other parts of 
the United States, gaining a position in an English 
colony. It is a foolish and expensive measure in the 
end, even apart from all question of honour, as the 
good city of Hamilton will discover the next time they 
have occasion to borrow money. The present garri- 
son of Hamilton consists of an Armstrong field-bat- 
tery, and a battalion of the Rifle Brigade. 

Before saying a word or two on the lakes, it may 
be as well to mention that the only other garrison in 
Canada of any importance, always excepting Quebec, 
to which we shall allude in another chapter, is Lon- 
don, Upper Canada. This garrison, once a favourite 
quarter, and even now not destitute of attraction, 
contains an Armstrong field-battery, the 63rd Regi- 
ment of Foot, and the head-quarters of the Canadian 
Rifles. This last-mentioned corps — a most useful as 
well as trustworthy body of old soldiers — is scattered 
over Canada, more especially in stations such as the 
Red River, where no other regular troops are sta- 
tioned, and as a nucleus for volunteers and militia in 
event of war would prove invaluable. 

The chief advantages to the men are certain indul- 
gences in the way of working at their trades, liberal 
rations for their families, and no limit to matrimony. 



TORONTO AND HAMILTON. 203 

Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Mi- 
chigan, and Lake Superior, are a group of lakes more 
or less connected with one another, and all of great 
size. Erie joins Ontario by means of the Niagara 
river, just as Huron communicates with Erie by the 
river St. Clair. They are, it is needless to say, all 
navigable and of great depth, but as they are subject 
to sudden storms, there is a long annual list of wrecks 
and loss of life. 

Their importance in the event of a war between us 
and the States was long ago recognised, as is manifest 
by the terms of a treaty between us, by which the 
maintenance on the lakes during peace of vessels of 
war is forbidden. If rumour may be credited, the 
Yankees keep this treaty to the letter, but break it in 
the sense, having gunboats ready to launch at a mo- 
ment's notice, which would at once destroy our 
commerce and endanger our lake cities. Whether 
they do so or not it is evident that they have rather 
the best of the bargain, as they could, always have the 
start of us in point of time. At the time of the Trent 
affair, gunboats were sent out to Canada in pieces 
ready to put together, thus showing how important in 
the eyes of our Government was the command of these 
lakes. As yet, Lake Ontario is the most valuable to 
us, on account of the more abundant settlements 
scattered on its margin. But as the tendency of 
emigration sets always to the west, where lands are 
cheaper, this preeminence will soon disappear. 



204 



CHAPTER XI. 

NIAGARA.. 



Alack ! what poverty my muse brings forth, 
That having such a scope to show her pride, 
The argument, all hare, is of more worth 
Than when it hath my added praise beside. 

Shakspeare. 



Now-a-days no man sees the Falls of Niagara 
save at a disadvantage. When you are anxious to be 
left alone "with them in contemplation and silence, 
you find a couple of insane photographers at your 
elbow, ready for a quarter- dollar to give you a picture 
of the Thunder of Waters with your own wretched 
figure in the foreground by w T ay of contrast. Should 
you succeed in escaping these ruffians, you run into 
the arms of some touter for the camera establishment, 
which enables you to see the Falls from the interior of 
a dark room at the low price of twelve and a half cents, 
while you can see them for nothing to much greater 
advantage outside. Should you be so self-denying as 
to resist these two temptations, you will not find your- 
self by this means exempt from further blandishments. 



NIAGARA. 205 

It soon dawns upon your bewildered faculties that 
the sole purpose of the remaining part of the trading 
residents at Niagara Falls is to prevent you from 
seeing the object, to view which you have travelled it 
may be many thousand miles. 

Just as you have made up your mind to lie down 
quietly on the Table Rock and drink in the beauties 
of the tumbling waters before you, you are tapped on 
the shoulder and warned imperatively that a visit to 
the Falls is incomplete without inspecting the cele- 
brated menagerie of wild beasts from every clime ; or 
half an hour after, just as you are seated where you 
combine a view of the rapids with a glimpse of the 
green semicircle in the English Falls known as the 
Horseshoe, you find some wretched creature with a 
tray suspended from his miserable neck containing 
petrifactions and mineral curiosities which have oc- 
curred, goodness knows why, to the vendor as appro- 
priate reminiscences to carry away with one. 

Should you make up your mind to go under the 
Falls, you are implored to come and see the Sulphur 
Springs ; or should you resist this entreaty, you are 
informed that it is a matter of urgent necessity that 
you should go down the river some mile and a half to 
contemplate that most uninteresting of sights — a whirl- 
pool. Should, again, you evince a desire to go down the 
rocks to see the bottom of the Falls, you drive the 
trading public frantic if you refuse to go down a 
species of underground railway, extremely uncom- 
fortable and hideously dangerous. And if you make 
up your mind to retire to the Lonely Tower on Goat 
Island, to escape persecution, you are recommended 
before doing so to invest to a large amount in Indian 



206 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

work, as if a parcel of beadwork moccasins and birch- 
bark canoes would enable one more fully to appreciate 
the scenery from the new point you have selected for 
your observations. 

You can go nowhere without advice, and do no- 
thing without suggestions. A large population have 
adopted the Falls, as if they were some private 
dancing bear or talking fish ; and you dare no more 
break through their dreary routine than you would 
venture to violate the etiquette of a court. If you go 
under the Falls, you are presented with a certificate 
as if you were takmg a degree ; although it is diffi- 
cult to conceive any reason why a traveller should 
require any diploma, in a matter which hardly sug- 
gests deception or falsehood. 

Your hotels are conducted on the gay and noisy 
principle, as if with the object of driving the water- 
fall out of your head. Bands play, and all con- 
ceivable inducements are invented to keep the travel- 
ler from what should be his legitimate purpose. In 
fact, so far from one being left to a contemplation of 
some of nature's greatest and most imposing scenes, 
every device of man is called into play to drown the 
very fact of their existence. So much for the disad- 
vantages of Niagara, now for a few words on the 
best way of seeing it, in spite of all these drawbacks. 

To begin with the point of accommodation ; there 
is of this no lack. Hotels have sprung up like mush- 
rooms, and the traveller has no difficulty in selecting 
an excellent one on either side of the Falls, or should 
he prefer it, at some little distance from them, and 
near the railway terminus and Suspension Bridge. 

The Clifton House is the best on the English side, 



NIAGARA. 207 

and is quite close to the Table Bock and Horseshoe 
Fall; the corresponding one on the other side being 
the International or American. Near the Suspension 
Bridge on the English side was the Great Western 
Railway Hotel, when I was there hi 1857, and on the 
other side was a hotel called the Mounteagle House. 
All of these are good, clean, and comfortable houses ; 
but for an English traveller, the preference should 
undoubtedly be given to the Clifton House. 

The season of the year at which it is best to visit 
the Falls varies of course with the taste and disposi- 
tion of the tourist. While July and August are 
fashionable months, the heat is very oppressive ; and, 
on the other hand, while October is a perfect month 
in point of climate, you run the risk of finding the 
best hotels closed. For my own part I have always 
fancied, from the descriptions I have received, that in 
the dead of winter one would see the Falls to the 
greatest advantage ; and after seeing at that season of 
the year the Grand Falls of the St. John, which hi 
height and volume are nothing to Niagara, I am 
more firmly wedded than ever to my opinion. One 
thing, however, is certain, that at no season can the 
Falls be anything but magnificent, and amply repay- 
ing to any traveller. 

The next pohit to be considered, is the time which 
one should devote to Niagara. And here let me say 
that if, with most sights in the world, merely doing 
them is unsatisfactory, it is more especially so with 
these great Falls. It is a singular metaphysical fact, 
that they grow on the mind both in size and 4n fasci- 
nation the longer one contemplates them. I spent a 
week by them, and I can honestly say that I was far 



208 OUFw GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

more impressed by their grandeur at the end than the 
beginning of that term. It was with reluctance that 
I was obliged to tear myself away, and had time per- 
mitted, I should gladly have spent a month longer 
beside them. 

Grand as the Falls of Niagara are, it would be 
wrong to disguise the fact, that the traveller is gene- 
rally disappointed the first time he looks at them. He 
has gradually worked himself up to a pitch of expec- 
tation, which ensures disappointment. Partly from 
the written description of others, partly from then 
world-wide reputation, and partly from the ideas con- 
ceived in his own mind through the powerful agencies 
of imagination and hope, the traveller arrives at 
Niagara with such exaggerated notions that it would 
be next to impossible wholly to gratify them. That 
these feelings of disappointment are but shortlived, 
I need hardly say; for just as truly as on arrival 
every one feels some disappointment, so on leaving 
every one feels lost in utter amazement and admi- 
ration. 

The first interview with a great man is often dis- 
appointing ; but a lengthened interview seldom fails 
to remove this feeling. And as in this case, it is the 
gradual comparison of the opinions and thoughts of a 
truly great mind with those of the petty minds of 
every-day association which enables us fully to ap- 
preciate its inherent nobility, so it is not until one has 
taken points of contrast in the surrounding landscape 
or out of the storehouse of his memory, that he does 
Ml justice to the grandeur of Niagara. The great 
width of the Falls seems to detract from then height 
on first viewing them, and the huge volume of water 



NIAGARA. 209 

which unceasingly pours over their height is not at 
at once perceptible. 

There are so many points which offer singularly 
favourable views of the Falls, that in naming any 
one of them, I must guard myself by saying that I 
merely give utterance to my own opinions. But 
with this reservation I would suggest two places from 
which a traveller can obtain a magnificent view, 
namely, the top of the tower on Goat Island, which 
while affording him a sight of the vast circumference 
of the English and American Falls, enables him best 
also to appreciate the huge volume of water which 
passes over the Horseshoe; and, secondly, the deck 
of the small steamer, called the Maid of the Mist, 
which carries, or at all events used to carry, pas- 
sengers up the river almost to the very foot of the 
Falls. After careful experiment of every available 
spot, I selected these two ; but there is no point 
from which one can help being overpowered by the 
grandeur of the mighty cascade. 

If I might venture to suggest another piece of 
advice to tourists, it is that they should visit the Falls 
alone for the first time, breaking up their party, if 
necessary, for a few hours. Having chosen a spot, 
let the traveller sit or he down, and give himself up 
to silent gazing at the Falls. Not till then will he 
realise the feeling I have alluded to — the growing of 
their magnificence into the mind. Hours will pass to 
him unconsciously, and day succeeding day will bring 
no weariness or satiety. To-day, perhaps, the spray 
which rises in a cloud to heaven will be glittering in 
rainbow hues under the rays of the sun; while to- 
morrow the sky may be dull and overcast, and there 

p 



210 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

Trill be a sullen majesty in the green volume pouring 
over the mighty precipice, and a dismal gloom brood- 
ing over the dark pool at the feet of the thundering 
cataract. And in gradually realising the beauties 
and the majesty of Niagara one becomes impatient of 
intrusion, and even of the presence of man or any- 
thing artificial. The reader can imagine, therefore, 
the acute sufferings to which one is exposed by those 
miserable intruders whose wretched officiousness is 
alluded to in the beginning of this chapter. The 
longing to be alone which comes over one barred 
to me one of the finest points for viewing the Falls 
which a tourist can have; for it was peq^etually 
thronged bv artists sketching it from this favourite 
spot, in numbers which reminded one of those old 
pictures in Punch of crowds of anglers fishing in the 
Thames at Putney. For, in addition to the artists 
themselves, who were bad enough, there stood sur- 
rounding each a little mob of the open-mouthed, who 
seemed to consider the mixing of colours to be the 
highest department in chemical wonders, and the 
transferring them to canvas, however indifferently, as 
nothing short of a miracle. 

The Falls of Niagara are divided, as we have 
already hinted, into two main cataracts, called respec- 
tively the English, or Horseshoe, and the American 
Fall. Of these two, which are placed at an angle of, 
I should think, some 60 deg. or 70 deg., I can say that 
it is from no national prejudice that I claim the supe- 
riority for the English one. The wider and deeper 
volume of water, combined with the appearance of 
the rapids, extending above it for miles, make it un- 
questionably the grander waterfall, although the 



NIAGARA. 211 

American seems to have the advantage in height. 
The Table Rock, a piece of which has fallen since 
my visit to Niagara, is a very picturesque object on 
the English side, and in the apex of the angle formed 
by the two Falls, Goat Island with its tower form a 
picture which, while beautiful in itself, greatly en- 
hances the effect of the entire tableau. 

The promenade under the Horseshoe Fall, to 
which we have already alluded as conferring on the 
hardy traveller a diploma, was performed by your 
obedient servant in a state of great terror and water- 
proof. On the deposit of the sum of two shillings 
sterling, if I remember aright, at a small house in the 
village (payment always in advance, and therefore 
horribly suggestive), I was supplied with a suit of oil- 
skin and a sou'-wester, under whose united influence 
I appeared in a character combining happily the 
dustman with a ship's mate on a damp night. By the 
above deposit of Her Majesty's coin I also became en- 
titled to the services of a guide, who was a negro. 
This last circumstance, considering the cheap rate at 
which the descendants of Ham are held across the 
Atlantic, seemed to me, if possible, more ghastly and 
suggestive even than the demand for payment in 
advance. Being, however, goaded on by the curiosity 
of some ladies to know what it was like, I was speedily 
arrayed, and followed my guide down the footpath 
leading below the Table Rock to the foot of the Falls.. 
Preparatory to passing behind the falling sheet my 
guide gave me some instructions, which I should like 
very much to have heard, but unfortunately, although 
by his mouth I could see he was yelling, I could not 
catch a word he said, so loud was the din and thunder 

P2 



212 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of the falling water. I bowed, however, as if I quite 
comprehended him, and he turned away to make what 
seemed to me a most foolhardy excursion. 

Following him, I found myself on a narrow ledge, 
very slippery, and with on one side the sheet of thun- 
dering water, and on the other the vertical rock, 
whose wet, slippery face I convulsively tried to grasp 
in vain hope of support. One false step would have 
hurled us into eternity, consequently I need hardly 
say I endeavoured to avoid that step 5 and kept my 
eyes either on my feet or on the wall of rock against 
which I was clinging, avoiding carefully any view of 
the cruel, thundering curtain on my left. After we 
had gone what seemed to me a mile, but which was, 
I believe, about a hundred feet, I saw through the 
clouds of spray which half-blinded me my guide stop 
and reach out his hand. 

"At last," I thought, "it will be all over soon, 
he wishes to bid me adieu!" So I reached out my 
left hand, which was nearest him, and gave him a 
sad squeeze of farewell, when, to my surprise, I 
found he retained a firm hold of me, as if resolved 
that we should take the fatal plunge together. I 
was greatly relieved, therefore, when I found him 
commence to move on, dragging me after him; his 
hand pantomime having evidently meant, not sen- 
timent, but assistance. Fondly, therefore, did I 
squeeze that black paw, with more feeling than ever 
did any Romeo the lily hand of his Juliet; and, 
somewhat reassured, but still thinking it very awful, 
I slipped, in the literal sense, after him. About this 
moment I began to think how unpleasant it would be 
if my sable conductor should have any latent insanity, 



NIAGARA. 213 

or be subject to fits, and in the course of my specula- 
tions had just arrived at the point of wondering 
whether he had a mother, and if she were subject to 
fits, when he stopped and looking at me rather wildly, 
I thought, showed me his white teeth in a succession 
of gigantic smiles. Rather nervously I returned the 
smiles, somewhat spasmodically, but still I presume 
successfully, for he next turned round, and, pointing 
at the falling water behind us, seemed endeavouring 
to persuade me to look at it. At this time I was 
standing spread out, facing the rock, somewhat like 
an erect spatch-cock, if such a thing can be realised 
by the reader, and to turn round would have involved 
the complete alteration of every limb's position, so 
smiling blandly, but at the same time shaking my 
head, I said to myself, " Not if I know it, my poor 
head is quite giddy enough already, and this last sug- 
gestion of yours is not in the bond, i. e. diploma." 
So I remained immovable, and contemplating sun- 
dry little yellow streams, as of sulphur, which were 
oozing out of the rock, until we started on our return 
journey. This was successfully accomplished, and 
pulling off my damp waterproofs, I prepared to re- 
ceive my diploma and the congratulations of my 
friends. Carrying out the saying, that no truly great 
achievement is ever adequately rewarded, I found the 
diploma a very miserable little piece of paper, like a 
luggage label ; while among my friends there was a 
decided disposition to undervalue the dangers through 
which I had passed. So I was obliged to content 
myself with hoping that some day I should find some 
Desdemona whose sympathies would atone for their 
unconcern, and for the paltry diploma. 



214 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

On the American side the Cave of the Winds is 
the curiosity, which corresponds to the passage behind 
the Horseshoe Fall. I have heard since my visit to 
Niagara that owing to some fall of rock this passage 
is now obstructed. Should this be mere rumour, so 
much the better for future adventurous students of 
the interior of a waterfall ; should it be fact, so much 
the better for me that I was in time. But how un- 
pleasant had it fallen when one was on the wrong 
side. 

The rapids above the Falls are considered by 
some to be even grander than the waterfall itself. 
Although not entertaining that opinion myself, I must 
own that it is only because they are in the immediate 
vicinity of a greater wonder, that the rapids have 
not an equally great reputation in the world. This 
may seem a bull, but it is not so ; for as all our world 
"wonders are not equally great, so it is certain that 
were these mighty rapids situated in another place, 
where they could not be overwhelmed in the be- 
holder's mind by the Falls, they would be as much in 
the traveller's mouth as the cataract itself. 

It is above the Falls that the celebrated sulphur 
springs are to be found, and, if I mistake not, they 
are in the grounds of some private dwelling. To 
prevent constant persecution, I yielded myself into 
the hands of some wretch who took me to the spot, 
and if I had not been at Niagara I should have been 
much interested. 

Following out this principle, I even so far forgot 
myself as to enter the world-renowned menagerie, 
and of all the mangy, ill-conditioned brutes, whose 
wildness must have been driven out of them by star- 



NIAGARA. 215 

vation or cruelty, those at Niagara were the worst. 
I even yielded to the importunities of a vendor of 
mineral curiosities, and purchased a piece of petrified 
moss ; which, however, hardly carried out its original 
intention, if it was supposed to awake in the owner's 
mind a cc u r ate and pensive recollections of Niagara's 
wonders. 

Having thus earned a right to be left undisturbed 
in my peregrinations — a right which, though dearly 
bought, was, all things considered, worth the purchase- 
money — I had four days' peaceable enjoyment of the 
Falls, if I may except a regular morning assault on 
me by an insane photographer, as I went from my 
hotel to the water. 

The day before I left, I went to see the whirlpool, 
which, unless my memory fails me, was about a mile 
and a quarter below the Falls. It is caused by a 
very sudden bend hi the Niagara river, and is a most 
quiet and harmless-looking Maelstrom, although I 
believe not the less sure and deadly. A gentleman 
whom I met in the hotel informed me that some 
years before, when on a visit to Niagara, the bodies 
of two or three Highland soldiers, who had been 
drowned hi endeavouring to desert hito the States, 
were floating in the whirlpool, a ghastly sight, clay after 
day. Nothing so unpleasant was there when I saw 
it, but it was illustrated sufficiently for my purpose 
by an empty oyster-barrel which had got into it. 
During half of every revolution the barrel was 
sucked under, reappearing with the regularity of 
clock-work during the other half, and always rising 
and sinking accurately at the same spot. The whirl- 
pool is viewed from a considerable height, the banks 



216 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of the river being lofty precipices, with wild shrubs 
and stunted trees growing out of them. On the 
Canadian bank, near the whirlpool, I was told that 
the victims of some pestilence, which many years 
before had decimated the inhabitants of the district, 
had been huddled in an unceremonious sepulture. 

Between the whirlpool and the Falls is the cele- 
brated Eailway Suspension Bridge, a work of great 
strength, and which exercised much ingenuity in its 
construction, while it also cost an immense sum of 
money before completion. It is in two compartments, 
one for the trains and the other for foot passengers 
and carriages, and is an immense convenience to resi- 
dents and tourists. A little above the bridge was the 
place selected by Blondin for his famous perfor- 
mances. 

The number of accidents by going over the Falls 
of Niagara is very great. Never a year passes with- 
out some melancholy addition to their catalogue. 
Occasional suicides, oftener accidents caused by boats 
being carried down the rapids, are the origin of these 
sad catastrophes. 

There is an old Indian legend which states that 
three lives require to be offered up annually to the 
Spirit of Niagara ; and it has been also remarked that 
this average is kept up. Apart from the superstition, 
however, there is little reason to doubt that most of 
the accidents are due to gross carelessness, and might 
easily be prevented. The bodies of those who go 
over the Falls, it is said, are always found stripped 
naked, the force of the water having beaten the 
clothes off their persons. I heard a horrible story of 



NIAGAKA. 217 

an unhappy man, who, being carried down the rapids, 
managed to check himself on a rock in their midst, 
and to scramble out on to it. There he remained two 
days and nights, no assistance being practicable from 
the shore, although every one could see him, hour 
after hour ; and at last, worn out and exhausted, he 
fell again into the rapids and was hurled over the 
cataract to a horrible death. 

The depth of water that passes over the Horseshoe 
Fall is very great. Some years ago a condemned 
steamer that was allowed to go over, did so without 
grazing the rock, although it drew a good many feet 
of water. The said steamer, like everthing that goes 
over the Fall, was dashed instantaneously into a thou- 
sand fragments. 

There is, it is said, a constant abrasion of the rock 
going on by the action of the water, the Falls thus 
receding imperceptibly but surely. Curious and 
mathematical travellers have calculated the position 
of the Falls at the date of man's creation, and also 
their future position some six thousand years hence. 
As far as one can see, we have the advantage in our 
day over our children of six thousand years hence, as, 
owing to the river being much wider above than below 
the Falls, the chances are that the fall will, at that 
date, be wider perhaps, but certainly shallower and less 
imposing. However, such speculations are idle ; long 
before that date it is more than probable that a prac- 
tical people like the Yankees will have availed them- 
selves of this immense water power, and, just as we 
have made the lightning from heaven carry our 
messages, they will degrade Niagara from its position 



218 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

as one of the world's lions, to being the motive power 
of some cotton mill or snuff manufactory. 

The Niagara Eiver is at the Falls the boundary line 
between Canada and the United States. In old 
times this was one of the easy places for the escape 
of our deserters ; but now-a-days the tables are turned, 
and we find the Yankees availing themselves of it to 
display their skedaddling propensities. 



219 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA IN THE WINTER 

1861-62. 

The saucer, which represented oiir -world in Hali- 
fax, was thrown into a great state of disturbance a 
little before Christmas, 1861, by the celebrated Trent 
affair. The excitement and indignation produced by 
that insolent act of an insolent Government was only 
equalled by the longing desires of our community that 
war would spring of it. We dreaded lest our Govern- 
ment, always rather yielding to the Yankees, would 
not take sufficiently strong measures now, and as the 
time approached when, by the arrival of the English 
mail, we should have our doubts and anxieties ended, 
the fever rose to an incontrollable pitch. The con- 
duct of our Government on that occasion is a matter 
of history, and as vessel after vessel arrived with their 
thousands of picked troops, and hoards of munitions 
of war, the excitement gave way to a feeling of proud 
satisfaction that our country had proved true to itself. 

The St. Lawrence being frozen during the winter 



220 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

months, and winter having now set in, it was well 
known that all transport of men and material to 
Canada must take place overland from Halifax or 
St. John, whose harbours are accessible to shipping 
even in the severest winters. Every one's attention was 
therefore directed to the best method of carrying on 
this sendee, and many a council of war did General 
Doyle, who commanded in the Lower Provinces, hold 
with his heads of departments on the subject. At 
last the 62nd Regiment, which had been inured by 
several years' American sendee to the cold of the win- 
ter, was put under orders to proceed in the steamer 
Delta to St. Andrew's, a harbour on the New Bruns- 
wick coast, and thence by rail to Woodstock, a village 
near the borders of the State of Maine, the intention 
being to open and hold the route to Canada for suc- 
ceeding troops, and, if necessary, to capture Houlton, 
a small recruiting depot of the Yankees, about nine 
miles from AYoodstock. To aid this plan a couple of 
guns and a detachment of forty gunners, under my 
command, were to accompany the infantry. 

As bad luck would have it, the day before we 
started, it was telegraphed from "Washington that the 
Yankees had submitted to give up Messrs. Mason and 
Slidell. 

The feelings of disappointment in every breast 
were almost ludicrous. TVe never had an exalted 
opinion — who has ? — of the Yankee nation : but we 
never thought so meanly of them as this. Xo, not 
into any of oiu 1 speculations had this idea entered, 
that the same nation which, a week or two before, 
alike in the drunken orgies of convivial banquets and 
the solemn meetings of its Senate, ratified by vote and 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 221 

applause the deed for which satisfaction was now de- 
manded, would, on the first stem word from the 
injured party, fall down on its craven knees, and, 
like a beaten bully at school, give up everything 
asked for. 

But although all chance of war was thus dispelled, 
there was not accommodation in Halifax for the troops 
already arrived, and on their way from England, and 
it was at the same time desirable that the force in 
Canada should be augmented, as, in event of hostili- 
ties, our great weakness would be found in the 
immense undefended frontier of that province. So 
the force already alluded to had not its destination 
altered ; the only change made in this part of the pro- 
gramme being that the guns were left behind, the 
gunners merely taking their carbines. The Delta, 
with these troops on board, arrived at St. Andrew's on 
New Year's-day, and the whole, under the command 
of Colonel Ingall, C.B., 62nd Eegiment, disembarked 
immediately. 

Before following the movements of the little force 
with which the author was more immediately con- 
nected, it is desirable, for the benefit of those unac- 
quainted with the country, to make some general 
remarks on the route followed by the troops during 
this great winter march, and should the details be 
somewhat uninteresting, it is to be hoped the reader 
will pardon the circumstance, in consideration of the 
greater ease with which the narrative of the march 
will be understood. 

When the first two or three vessels left England 
for Canada, with troops, the instructions given to the 
captains were that, if possible, they were to land the 



222 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

soldiers on some point in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, such 
as Riviere du Loup, or Bic, and should they be suc- 
cessful in doing so a handsome bonus would be paid by 
the Government. Should they be prevented, however, 
by the ice in the Gulf, as was too probable, they were 
then to make for Halifax. Only one vessel was suc- 
cessful in landing troops in Canada, direct — the 
Cunarcl steamer Persia, with the 16th Regiment on 
board — which landed its living freight at Bic. But 
even this vessel was only partially successful, for the 
ice came down on them so suddenly, that, while one 
company was yet on board, although its luggage un- 
fortunately had gone on shore, the Persia had to run 
for it and steam round to Halifax. Part of the crew 
having gone on shore, the few remaining troops on 
board had to turn sailors for the time, and by all 
accounts they made very good and willing ones. The 
Adriatic got to the Gulf, but was unable to land any 
of its cargo, so it was obliged to make for Halifax 
also, as did all the others. 

On consulting a map of our American possessions, 
the reader will observe that communication between 
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick may be maintained 
by land round the head of the Bay of Fundy, or by 
sea to any of the ports on the New Brunswick coast, 
in the same bay. In winter it is not possible to make 
the direct excursion from Windsor, Nova Scotia, to 
St. John, N.B., therefore the sea route to New 
Brunswick from Halifax is round the province— con- 
siderably longer than the summer route. By this way 
St. Andrew's is a nearer port than St. John, for 
troops proceeding northward to Canada, and there is, 
in addition, a line of railway from the former port to 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 223 

Woodstock, the point where the routes to Canada 
from St. John and St. Andrew's intersect, and after 
which they proceed together. From Woodstock the 
road to Canada follows the river St. John, and was 
divided thus : First day's march, to Florenceville ; 
second ditto, to Tobique ; third ditto, Grand Falls ; 
fourth ditto, Little Falls. 

Here we enter Canada, and owing to the supe- 
riority of the roads, the day's march lengthened, and 
was divided into two journeys of forty miles each — to 
Fort Ingall and Riviere du Loup. The latter place 
is the eastern terminus of the Grand Trunk Railway, 
and from it the troops were carried westward by rail 
to their various destinations. Supposing the troops 
came from St. John to Woodstock, instead of from 
St. Andrew's, the journey occupied four days, two 
days between St. John and Fredericton, and two be- 
tween Fredericton and Woodstock, This was the 
route taken ultimately by most of the troops, partly 
because the accommodation at St. John in case of 
any accumulation of troops was better than at St. 
Andrew's, and partly because at first the weather was 
unfortunately so severe as to interfere with the 
running of the trains between St. Andrew's and 
Woodstock, as we shall have occasion to show more 
fully as we go on. 

On studying the map, the reader will observe that 
from Woodstock to Little Falls, the road lies very 
nearly alongside of the Yankee frontier. The remem- 
bering this fact will enable the reader to judge better 
of the difficulties we suffered from agents endeavour- 
ing to make our men desert, by first making them 
half drunk, and then tempting them by offers of large 



224: OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

bounty and enormous pay. But wholly apart from 
this consideration, in this close vicinity of the Yankee 
frontier lies the danger and weakness of this route in 
time of war. Although we were able, easily enough, 
when there was no fear of molestation, to transport 
our men in small columns of 100 or 200 strong, yet 
had we had a small body of hostile cavalry or riflemen, 
or a couple of guns commanding the road at any 
point, it is needless to say that our advance would 
have been completely stopped, unless our little army 
marched together in strong enough force to overcome 
an enemy. 

When, therefore, our press was filled with boastings 
on account of the ease with which our troops were 
transported overland on this occasion, every one who 
had any practical experience of this military move- 
ment, knew well that it was no guarantee for the 
safety of a similar force on any future occasion, when 
war might be declared between us and the States. 
All that could be said of the arrangements on this 
occasion was, that it showed greater perfection of our 
commissariat and medical departments, and the higher 
ability of our staff, when compared with the Crimea, 
and other campaigns. As for danger and difficulties, 
there were no more to be encountered than hi a fort- 
night's march from Aldershott through our southern 
counties. Undoubtedly, the arrangements were ex- 
cellent, and there was never any hitch, save where the 
inclemency of the weather occasioned any stoppage ; 
but we must bear in mind always that although a 
model march through a strange but friendly country, 
it affords no precedent for any similar movement, 
when the same route might be exposed to attack and 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 225 

annoyance from an active and powerful enemy. 
Should such a risk exist, one of three alternatives 
would have to be adopted : 

1st. The road would have to be kept free by large 
moving columns of our own troops, while the main 
body was marching. 

2nd. The entire force would have to march to- 
gether, and, consequently, much more slowly; and 
would have to put up with much worse fare and more 
indifferent accommodation than was afforded to the 
small columns that daily and methodically succeeded 
one another in the march of 1861-62. 

3rd. A new route would have to be adopted, more 
to the eastward, so as to escape annoyance from the 
enemy. This new route would probably be more like 
the line proposed for the Intercolonial Eailway, which, 
if made, of course would afford a fourth, and more 
satisfactory solution of the difficulty than any other. 

With these preliminary remarks, I shall merely 
mention the various regiments which took part in 
this march, and then proceed to the more personal 
part of this chapter. These troops were : 

Artillery. — 4th Brigade. Field Artillery. Se- 
veral batteries, with Armstrong guns complete, but 
no horses ; these being afterwards purchased in Ca- 
nada. 7th Brigade. Garrison Artillery. Two bat- 
teries (Nos. 5 and 6). 10th Brigade, about half the 
brigade, or rather more. 

Infantry. — Grenadier Guards and Scots Fusilier 
Guards, one battalion each; 16thEegiment, one com- 
pany ; 62nd Kegiment ; 63rd Regiment. One bat- 
talion Rifle Brigade; 15th Regiment, as far as Fre- 
dericton 

Q 



226 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

Miscellaneous. — Royal Engineers ; Military 
Train, two battalions ; Army Hospital Corps ; Com- 
missariat Staff Corps ; Cavalry Instructors for Militia 
and Volunteers. 

A battalion of the 16th and 17th Regiments re- 
spectively, which came abroad at this time, remained 
in Halif ax ; and a batteiy of the 10th Brigade, Royal 
Artillery, proceeded to Newfoundland. An Arm- 
strong field-battery of the 8th Brigade, Royal Artil- 
lery, which came out rather later, remained at Halif ax 
for some months, and then proceeded to New Bruns- 
wick. 

Some six months after the whole movements were 
over, the 7th Brigade Royal Artillery, whose term of 
foreign service was over, was replaced by the 15th 
Brigade from England. On this occasion, the part 
of the 10th Brigade which had been left in Halifax 
moved on to Canada, leaving the former station to be 
garrisoned by the newly arrived loth Brigade. 

The infantry regiments, already in Canada before 
the Trent affair, were the 1st battalion 17th Regi- 
ment, the 30th Regiment, the 47th, and a battalion 
of the 60th Rifles, in addition to the Royal Canadian 
Rifles ; and in Nova Scotia, the 62nd and 63rd Regi- 
ments. Of these regiments, the 30th and 60th had 
come out, along with a batter}' of the 4th Brigade, 
hi the Great Eastern, some time before. 

Of course, this force would have been inadequate 
to take the field by itself, against the large armies of 
the States ; but they would have formed a powerful 
nucleus for the colonial militia and volunteers ; and, 
besides, the political effect they had, coming out as 
they did, with the demand made by our Government 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 227 

for reparation, was more powerful than we would at 
first believe, considering their comparatively small 
numerical strength. 

And the staff sent out by the authorities was of the 
best in every way. Sir Fenwick Williams was sur- 
rounded by men who in every part of the world 
had gamed a name for zeal, gallantry, and high 
military talent; his several generals of division 
were picked men, as the regiments were picked 
troops ; the medical and commissariat departments 
were headed by their best officers respectively; the 
Lower Provinces were under General Doyle, a 
man whose antecedents justified one in expecting 
the administrative and militarv talent he has dis- 
played ; the tone of the whole army was good, and 
the materiel of the best ; while along the American 
coa-t we had, under a prudent and talented admiral, 
a fleet which would have astonished Nelson. 

Thus, had war come, as the troops and even the 
colonists wished, our model armv and magnificent fleet, 
backed by the sturdy loyalty of our colonists, who 
never showed to such advantage as at this time, when 
war would have made them heavy sufferers even in 
case of continual victory, would have probably assisted 
the Southerners in the lessons they taught their vain 
foes on many a battle-field beyond Washington. 

To resume our narrative. When our small force, 
under Colonel Ingall, disembarked at St. Andrew's on 
New Year's-day, we found everything in readiness 
for housing part of us, and for the remainder to pro- 
ceed towards Woodstock by rail. The troops having 
first dined, and the officers having received hospitality 
from the manager of the line, and others of the inha- 
Q2 



228 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

bitants, the head-quarters of the regiment and three 
companies, as far as I remember, with my detachment 
of gunners, got into the train, and as we did not ex- 
pect to be longer than a few hours, we did not carry 
rations. Unfortunately, the weather had been snowy 
and threatening, and before we had gone half way, 
the line was blocked up, and we were left stationary. 
The storm of that day, and the intensity of the cold, 
will not soon be forgotten ; nor will the passengers in 
that unhappy train soon forget their unpleasant posi- 
tion. The manager, who was with us, finding that 
the engine could not draw the whole train, had se- 
veral carriages detached, and endeavoured to go on 
with the remainder. But the first part of the train 
even, in which I was, was too heavy to permit the 
engine to make any way through the snow, which 
the wind had drifted on to the track in perfect moun- 
tains, so in about half a mile, we came also to a 
stop ; and, as a last experiment, the engine went on 
alone to procure assistance, carrying with it the ma- 
nager and the colonel. We learned next day that in 
about ten minutes after leaving us, the engine began 
to show symptoms of giving out ; there was no water, 
and snow was a tedious substitute; so when about 
three miles in advance of us, it also stopped, and in 
half an hour or so, was frozen hard. The manager 
was frost-bitten ; and had it not been for a small log- 
hut near, it would have gone hard with the small 
party on the engine. In the meantime, we sat wait- 
ing for its return ; evening came on, then night, then 
morning, but still no sign. Our hunger was great, 
for in the hurry at St. Andrew's, we had not done so 
much justice to our luncheon as we might ; and the 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 229 

cold, which was intense, whetted our appetite in no 
inconsiderable degree. The feeling, too, that we conld 
get nothing to eat, tended to make us all the more 
eager for food, for there is more sentiment in our 
appetites than we think. Each of the long cars, in 
which we were, was supplied with a stove, as is the 
custom in America ; but our supply of fuel soon was 
exhausted. To avoid being frozen as well as starved, 
the pioneers got out of the carriages, and cut down 
as much of the branches and dead wood near the rail- 
way as would keep the fires going all night ; although, 
poor fellows, they had to stand up to their arm-pits 
in snow while doing so. 

I myself had brought with me a tolerably large 
brandy flask, and to no provident act of mine in my 
whole life do I look back with such unmixed satisfac- 
tion. It was a peculiar one, called a "hydraulic 
canteen," an American idea and a very good one. It 
was oblong, and was slung round the shoulder by a 
strap under the great-coat. To avoid unbuttoning 
everything when one desired to moisten one's clay, 
a long flexible tube with an amber mouthpiece was 
attached to the strap and communicated with the can- 
teen. When slung correctly, the mouthpiece was 
just under the chin, so all one had to do was to insert it 
in the mouth and suck away calmlyuntil one's thirstwas 
gratified. Unfortunately this same operation could be 
performed should one fall asleep by another without 
disturbing the owner, and during the snatches of re- 
pose I had during the night, I can say safely that I 
seldom if ever awoke without finding some head, not 
my own, fondly reclining on my bosom and sucking 



230 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

at the tube in perfect frenzy. The opportunities I 
had of studying the phrenological organs of the back 
of the human head during that night would have 
made Gall and Spurzheim truly happy. 

But morning came, and yet no sign of food or as- 
sistance. Nothing to eat, but ever so many hungry 
mouths. We were getting desperate, and commenced 
feeling sullenly in our pockets for crumbs. When 
thus engaged I came upon a piece of paper con- 
taining some half-dozen peppermint lozenges. Our 
delight was unbounded, and in our*small group at one 
end of the carnage they were honestly divided and 
eaten with a solemnity befitting the occasion. What 
a scene for an artist ! the British officer campaigning 
and taking a light breakfast off a peppermint ! Ye 
gentlemen of England, who live at home at ease ! what 
do you think of such a breakfast with the thermome- 
ter at zero ? But allow me, as a friend, to suggest 
that should you ever be in our position you throw the 
peppermint out of the window rather. The conse- 
quences of this dainty are familiar to most people, 
and chiefly elderly ladies, but on an empty stomach 
after a twenty-four hours' fast the effect is something 
awful. 

Fortunately the drum-major (may he live a thou- 
sand years), who was in our carriage, found a little 
coffee in his haversack, and this was boiled in a tin 
canteen on the top of the stove, and with snow in 
place of water. Yet even under these trying cir- 
cumstances, in the absence too of milk and sugar, we 
found it very delicious and reviving. And yet to- 
morrow we will be growling that our coffee is too 



THE OYERLAXD MARCH TO CANADA. 231 

thick, or the milk too thin, and, generally speaking, 
Avill be making domestic brutes of ourselves. Such is 
life ! Everything — physical and moral — every temper 
and laugh, every joy and sorrow, seems to have a 
most unromantic connexion with the state of the 
stomach at the time. 

About noon, just as we had made up our minds to 
get out and inarch to the nearest station, we observed 
a figure on the track making towards us. On his ar- 
rival we learned the fate of the engine, but received 
the cheering intelligence that the snow-ploughs were 
at work, and that we would probably resume our 
journey in a couple of hours. The thoughtful ma- 
nager of the line had sent by the messenger a small 
supply of food, which was divided into as many por- 
tions as possible and thoroughly appreciated. 

The railway was not at that time open the whole 
way to Woodstock; about twenty-three miles, if I 
remember aright, had to be done on sleighs. When 
we at length reached the station, where our means of 
conveyance was to be changed, which was not until 
late in the evening of the second day, we found to our 
intense disgust that, owing to the sleighs having been 
kept waiting two clays, all the available provisions of the 
small inn had been devoured by the drivers, and we 
had to continue our journey without any refreshment. 
It was midnight before we reached Woodstock, when 
we got a little food, but very little. The men's 
barracks were a series of large brick warerooms hired 
at an enormous rent, and in a very unfinished state. 
They were very cold, and for the first few days con- 
tained no beds, the men sleeping on spruce branches 
and straw spread on the floor. Ultimately they got more 



232 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

habitable, but it was impossible to keep them clean or 
warm. Several houses had been hired for officers' 
quarters, but as they were perfectly nude of furni- 
ture, and the officers were restricted to a very small 
amount of baggage, they were quite useless, and we 
had to find accommodation at our own expense in the 
hotels of the town. Fortunately there was one very 
large inn with tolerably good bedrooms, in which at 
one time so many as thirty or forty officers lived to- 
gether, having a joint mess, with the culinary arrange- 
ments under our own supervision. Here, after a while, 
we managed to shake ourselves down very comfort- 
ably, but our amusements were on the most limited 
scale, consisting entirely of whist and snow-shoeing. 
Every building that could be lined was taken at enor- 
mous rentals by the Government, both here and at all 
the stations along the road. The money scattered 
through the district by this means, as well as the 
various contracts for bread, meat, and groceries, must 
have been enormous ; and as, in addition, every man 
who had a sleigh and a pair of horses could have them 
hired at a good price, this winter must be looked back 
on by the New Brunswickers as a golden age. 

There not being the same immediate hurry as if 
war had been imminent, the troops were not allowed 
to leave Woodstock until all the arrangements were 
completed in advance along the road to Riviere du 
Loup. These were admirable and yet simple. Every 
morning a column of one hundred and sixty men with 
then baggage left Woodstock in sleighs for Florence- 
ville, about twenty-five miles. On their arrival at 
this place it was the duty of the officer commanding 
to despatch two telegrams, one to the station im- 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 233 

mediately behind — in this case Woodstock — and the 
other to St. John, for the information of the general, 
reporting their safe arrival or otherwise, and the state 
of the roads. The same messages were despatched 
from every station by every column, so that there 
could be no confusion by the accumulation of troops 
at stations where there was not adequate accommoda- 
tion. In the long stages, between Little Falls and 
Riviere du Loup, there was a mid-day halting place, 
where refreshments could be had for payment at a 
moderate rate. The accommodation for the men was 
much the same at every station after Woodstock. It 
was always a large building, containing a huge stove, 
and with the floor covered a foot deep with spruce- 
boughs, forming a soft and fragrant bed for the troops. 
The first step on the arrival of a column at its 
night's resting-place was to issue to every one, officers 
included, a small ration of rum — excellent spirit al- 
ways. The men then had their warm tea and bread, 
and the cooks, who were detailed daily, proceeded to 
prepare the dinner for the following day, which was 
carried by each man in his haversack and eaten when 
he liked. The barns in which they slept were 
always comfortable and well warmed, and the men 
were always cheerful. Their clothing was abundant 
and excellent. Each man had a fur cap with ear- 
lappets, a woollen comforter, a chamois waistcoat, and 
flannel shirt; warm gloves, thick woollen stockings, 
and moccasins instead of boots. They always wore 
their great-coats, and packed their knapsacks and car- 
bines in their sleighs. A surgeon and a commissariat 
officer were at each station, and almost every column 
had its surgeon along with it. The precautions taken 



234 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

against frost-bites and any discomfort were so nu- 
merous as to warrant the use of the term " coddling." 
To prevent confusion an officer of the quartermaster- 
general's department was stationed at the most impor- 
tant places along the road, such as St. John, Frederic- 
ton, Woodstock, and Riviere du Loup. Staff-officers 
were also constantly on the move between the ex- 
tremities of the route, so that it was almost impossible 
to find any error or confusion, or, if such existed, that 
it should continue. 

The sleighs were furnished by contractors. The 
line was divided into portions allotted to different in- 
dividuals for this purpose. One man had the road 
between St. John and Fredericton, another between 
Fredericton and Woodstock. The four stages be- 
tween Woodstock and Little Falls, and the stage be- 
tween the terminus of the St. Andrew's railway and 
Woodstock were all in the hands of a third; while 
Canadian sleighs were employed after Little Falls to 
Riviere du Loup. It was fortunate that this season 
the lumber trade was not brisk, and many horses out 
of work, else the contractors would not have had so 
good and easy a bargain. As it was, in the square 
before the hotel at Woodstock, every morning, many 
more sleighs came to be hired than were needed, 
particularly early in the season, before the weak teams 
were knocked up, so that the contractor managed to 
make as good a bargain as he could have wished. The 
sleighs employed were of the rudest construction. 
Each was capable of carrying eight men, seated 
either on small cross-seats holding two each, or on 
planks nailed round the sleigh, so that the men had 
their feet in the box-part of the vehicle together. 
There was always an abundance of straw, and as the 



THE OVERLAND MARCH TO CANADA. 235 

march progressed, and the men became more accus- 
tomed to it, it was amusing to see how cunning they 
became in the art of stowing away their knapsacks 
and carbines, and in making the most of their some- 
what limited accommodation. The sleighs used by 
the officers were similar to those employed by the 
men, but as they had not to carry so many, their pro- 
prietors gave, in consideration of this, ample supplies 
of buffalo robes. 

The order of march was generally as follows : First, 
a sleigh with half the officers attached to the column ; 
next, the baggage-sleighs, with their guard ; then, the 
body of the troops ; and, lastly, the remaining half of 
the officers in another sleigh. By this arrangement 
there was less danger of straggling, and the pace of 
the sleighs was adapted to the baggage, which was the 
heaviest, and therefore slowest part of the column. 

The drivers of the sleighs were, as a rule, good, 
jolly fellows. One or two instances of insubordina- 
tion being promptly punished had a good effect ; and 
in our column I can answer for it, that there was al- 
ways thorough good-temper and readiness among our 
thirty Jehus. 

After the road was thoroughly ready, the move- 
ment onwards was carried out with imceasing regu- 
larity. After the 62nd Regiment had gone from 
Woodstock, my detachment was attached to a newly- 
arrived party of gunners, and with a company of the 
16th Regiment, all under the command of Captain 
F. Carey, R.A., was despatched on its journey about 
the 20th of January, 1862. 

The details I have already given, will enable me to 
dispense with many particulars connected with our 
individual journey. Our party consisted of eight 



236 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

regimental and two medical officers ; and the men 
were divided about equally into eighty gunners and 
eighty of the 16th Eegiment. There was, however, 
another member of our party who deserves to be men- 
tioned. He was my dog, Carlo, a spaniel, who ran 
the whole way, and made his appearance in Quebec 
with feet swollen to the size of cricket-balls ; but with 
undiminished spirit and activity. On the principle of 
" Nil nisi bonum de mortuis," I should like to devote 
a page or two to Carlo's praise. For, alas ! victim to 
a mistaken order, he lies under the turf at Quebec, 
where he made his triumphal entry. How he was 
petted and caressed every night, and coaxed every 
morning to persuade him to accompany any particu- 
lar sleigh, must be well remembered by all of our 
party. Poor, dear Carlo! fated while alive to be- 
come a soldier's pet, and, therefore, a cur at last, and 
in death to fall a victim to martial-law, let me here 
commemorate thy proudest achievement in life, and 
my own affection and admiration. 

But we are fairly under weigh, and to the merry 
sound of our sleigh-bells are leaving the now familiar 
town of Woodstock. Soon we are flying past the 
spruce trees, and exchanging greetings with the in- 
habitants of the various cottages on the road, while 
many a pipe is lit, and rugs and great-coats are made 
the most of, and speculations are rife as to the accom- 
modation likely to be found at Florenceville, our 
halting-place for the night. 

And as our chapter is now pretty long, I shall take 
breath before continuing our journey, and resume it 
on another page. 



237 



CHAPTER XHI. 

THE MAECH COXTIXTTED, AXD QUEBEC. 

Florenceyille is one of those uninteresting vil- 
lages we meet in America, which are so numerous 
and so destitute of any distinctive individuality. We 
did not arrive until late in the day, and before we had 
the men comfortably housed for the night — an opera- 
tion which seemed to possess an unwearying interest 
for the villagers wherever we went — we were all 
hungry enough to do justice to even a worse dinner 
than was provided for us by our host. This, our inn 
at Florenceville, was the only place along the route 
where arrangements had been made for billeting the 
officers, leaving them merely to pay for their meals. 
In all other inns we were treated as ordinary travel- 
lers, save that we were charged for everything extra- 
ordinary prices. As we had rather more than the 
usual number of officers with our column, there was 
some difficulty in finding beds ; indeed, some four or 
five able-bodied specimens of the British subaltern lay 



238 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

all night on the parlour floor, round the fire-place, 
like so many gigantic specimens of crickets on the 
hearth. 

We always paraded in the morning while it was 
yet dark, so our toilets were hurried and incomplete. 
Indeed, those of us who did not utterly neglect their 
beards, were driven to adopt the custom of shaving 
over night. The morning was unquestionably our 
most miserable time. The cold was more intense 
then, and tweaked our noses and other extremities in 
a way not calculated to promote geniality of temper. 
There was always a little confusion then about bag- 
gage ; the drivers were denser in the morning than at 
any other period of the day ; and the irritation which 
is always produced in the bosom of the true Briton 
by the payment of a hotel bill, was not lessened 
by the many little trials we had to go through in 
starting. 

From Florenceville onwards, we gradually ap- 
proached nearer to the Yankee frontier, until at 
length the only line of demarcation was the river St. 
John, on whose eastern bank the road winds on which 
we travelled. Tobique, which was our next halting- 
place, had already acquired a bad name as the head- 
quarters of some Yankee agents, who endeavoured 
every night to decoy the soldiers from their alle- 
giance. This traffic, when successful, was very remu- 
nerative to those engaged ; the bounty given to a man 
who would bring in a well-drilled recruit being very 
considerable. Fore-warned being proverbially fore- 
armed, we took every precaution, on our arrival, to 
ensure the safety of our men from the drink and 
bribes offered so freely by those miscreants, and I am 



THE MARCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC. 239 

glad to say, we met with success. But sitting round 
the fire that evening, we discussed a proposal which 
we resolved to execute at the next night's halting- 
place, to the following effect. It was resolved to take 
turns during the night among the officers, putting on 
a soldier's great-coat and accoutrements, and pacing 
up and down in any prominent place as if on sentry. 
We thus hoped to attract some of the Yankee agents, 
who were known to be very active with their enticing 
offers among the sentinels ; and should we succeed in 
getting them to broach the subject to us, we would 
immediately arrest them ; the punishment being se- 
vere for such an offence as this — and necessarily so 
— in countries where desertion is so easy. 

The station where we proposed to put this plan 
into execution, was Grand Falls, but whether it would 
have proved a successful one or not, we were not 
allowed to judge, owing to a ludicrous misadventure. 
After dinner, arrangements had been made, and it 
fell to the author to go on sentry first. Arraying 
myself, with the assistance of my amused confederates, 
I went out into the cold dark night, carbine in hand, 
and selecting what seemed a choice spot, I commenced 
parading solemnly up and down, after the manner of 
sentries. This lasted without any adventure for about 
half an hour, and being rather weary of the monotony 
of the thing, I extended my beat along the road. I 
had gone about three hundred yards, when a turn of 
the road brought me in sight of a sentry — a Simon 
Pure — in close confab with a civilian. No sooner 
did my delighted optics ascertain this for me, than off 
I started for the group, and, not listening to any ex- 
planation, I requested my suspicious gentleman to 



240 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

precede me to the hotel, a request I took the liberty 
of enforcing by bringing my carbine to the trail be- 
hind him, the muzzle within six inches oft his back. 
The unhappy man, in a fit of violent trembling, 
obeyed — who would not obey so practical an argu- 
ment? — and inwardly exulting, I walked behind 
dreaming of glory awaiting me, the Victoria Cross, 
the command of the forces in America, what reward 
could be too great for so distinguished an action ? 
While in the seventh heaven of hope and ambition, I 
was brought hurriedly down by my prisoner remarking 
to me in a weak and quavering voice, yet as if in a 
conciliatory way too, that " it was a fine night." Good 
heavens ! I was aghast. What right had a prisoner 
to tell his captor and escort that it was a fine night? 
This was infinitely worse than the plaintiff's counsel 
in Pickwick, telling the defendant's that it was a fine 
morning. 

But /wasn't going to be taken in by any of his 
miserable artifices ! No ! with a profound silence, I 
merely hurried my pace and my prisoner all the 
faster until we arrived at the hotel, where, steering 
him dexterously into the parlour among my brother 
officers, I stood in the glare of the lamp with the con- 
victed one, awaiting congratulation for myself, and a 
magistrate for him. 

But, why that dead silence as of amazement, and 
then those peals of ironical laughter ? Oh ! agony ! 
take me away and hide me ! My prisoner is no Yankee, 
but one of our own most harmless drivers! Need I 
say there was no more done in that line that night ; 
and that in my bed I strove in vain to drown the re- 



THE MARCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC. 241 

membrance of the captured one, and forget my wild 
dreams of merited preferment. 

The Grand Falls of the river St. John, are worthy 
the visit of the American tourist. Although, of course, 
nothing to Niagara, it is yet a considerable body of 
water, and at the season of the year when we were 
there, the fall looked to particular advantage, owing 
to the immense icicles hanging round it. There is a 
very fine, although not very large, suspension bridge 
here: but in winter the traffic crosses on the ice, 
which is capable of bearing any weight. 

I do not remember much of Little Falls, our next 
halting-place, save that it was a bustling little village. 
But we have everv reason to remember Fort Ingall, 
the stage some forty miles farther on, where we spent 
the next night. Of all dreary and dismal habitations, I 
consider Fort Ingall the most dreary and most dismal ; 
and of all deserted-looking forts and abominable inns, 
the fort where our men slept that night, and the inn 
under whose roof we remained, were respectively the 
most deserted and the most abominable. Beds being 
limited in number in the inn, we most of us lay on a 
rotten, ruined floor (in whose gaps and crevices we were 
tripping all the time, as we moved about), and there 
seemed as little idea of fires hi that house for warm- 
ing the outer man, as of cooking for comforting the 
inner. The only fluid we could procure in the place, 
was ice-cold, flat bottled ale, at the moderate price of 
two shillings a bottle ; so we were compelled to make 
the most of our ration rum. I do hope that succeed- 
ing bodies of troops were enabled to make some im- 
provement in this establishment, but in my time, it 

R 



242 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

was something too disgraceful. We were delighted 
to get away, and its wretched state — if it had no other 
good effect — acted on us as a tonic, enabling us all 
the more to enjoy Riviere du Loup, our next halting- 
place, with its superior and civilised comforts. 

Riviere du Loup, is a favourite watering-place 
among the Canadians, and contains very good hotels 
and lodging-houses. We found our hotel particularly 
comfortable and clean; but nothing marked so dis- 
tinctly our return to civilised life, as the reappearance 
of that important domestic institution — a waiter. Here, 
also, we were enabled for the first time since our de- 
parture from Halifax to procure a glass of sherry, an 
article which would have been somewhat incongruous 
in the hovels where we had frequently spent the night. 

At Eiviere du Loup we parted with our sleighs, 
and travelled by rail on the Grand Trunk. We had 
got accustomed to the former method of journeying, 
with its bracing, open-air work, and sense of liberty, 
with the amusement of chaffing our driver and one 
another ; singing songs in a way that would horrify 
steady-going railway passengers ; getting out to run 
by the side of the sleigh to keep up the circulation, 
and in every way conducting ourselves more like 
schoolboys out for a lark, than as staid men, engaged 
in what had been considered by the Press as likely to 
prove an uncomfortable, if not dangerous, expedition. 
The change seemed all the worse, when we took our 
seats in the huge unwieldy railway cars, with their 
close, stifling stoves, and noisy rattling. 

Before, however, we take our seats, will the reader 
pardon a digression on a subject which the last two 
days sleighing had brought prominently before us ? I 



THE MARCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC. 243 

mean the loyalty of our French Canadian popula- 
tion. 

By many people and journals, doubts and suspicion 
had been cast on this, long before the Trent affair had 
created a position, where the feelings of so large a 
portion of our Canadian subjects would have been of 
any political importance. During the Crimean war, 
it was angrily argued by some, that the French Cana- 
dians were not so jubilant over the victories of the 
English army, as the French. But surely it would 
have been alien to human nature, had this not been 
the case. The Scotchman singled out as his heroes 
the gallant Highland Brigade, and in any battle in 
which it was engaged, what Irishman but would boast 
over the doings of the brave regiment of Connaught 
Hangers. But if there had been any time when the 
supposed disloyalty of the Lower Canadians would 
have found a vent, it would have been at a season, 
when war seemed inevitable between the American 
Government and England. So far, however, was 
this from being the case, that, to the amazement of 
none so much as the Yankees, there was not even a 
hint thrown out as to this opportunity of rushing into 
the arms of a grand republic, nor a murmur uttered 
as to the losses which they would sustain by living in 
the scene of such a war as seemed only too probable. 
During our sleigh journey through the French dis- 
trict south of Kiviere du Loup, I observed nothing 
but the most exuberant welcome and assurances of 
loyalty. In one village in particular, I remember 
our column was met on entering by the priest, who 
stood blessing us as we passed ; while a little farther 
on we came on a group of peasants surrounding with 
r2 



244 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

looks of pride the village fiddler, an old blind French- 
man, who was labouring to extract from the loose 
strings of a crazy violin our national anthem, " God 
save the Queen ! " 

But apart from all sentiment in the matter, nor 
taking into consideration the jealousy which generally 
exists between two adjoining nations, differently 
governed, let us ask on the sound British principles 
of self-interest and common sense, what have the 
French Canadians to gain by an exchange of their 
allegiance from our flag to the Brummagem banner 
of Yankee-dom. 

We can find nothing ; but we see that they have 
on the contrary every thing to lose. Never under 
the States would they be allowed their present liberty 
in point of law and language ; never under the States 
would they hold the immense landed estates they pos- 
sess in undisputed tenure all over Canada. As for 
the sentimental idea of liberty, which, until the days 
in which we write, was supposed by many to lie in 
the government of a nation by a mob instead of a 
monarch, it is as difficult to see how the French Ca- 
nadians would be happier under Abe Lincoln than 
under England, as it is to see in what points they 
are trod upon by the grinding heel of an Aristo- 
cratic despotism, which is the paradoxical idea the 
Yankees have of our constitutional monarchy. 

In proceeding to Point Levi, immediately opposite 
Quebec, from Kiviere du Loup, we had the joimiey 
agreeably broken half way by a very good dinner 
provided gratis to us by the Company. I have com- 
plained so much in other places of the Grand Trunk, 
that I am glad to have an opportunity of admitting 



THE MARCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC 245 

any merit in it at all ; and I confess with much plea- 
sure, that we all considered this dinner singularly 
meritorious and thoughtful. 

We crossed from Point Levi to Quebec in canoes, 
in the manner described by me in the second chapter 
of this book. An enthusiastic welcome awaited us 
from the crowds on the shore and wharves of the 
citadel city; but the pleasure which we at starting 
had imagined awaiting us at our journey's end, was 
sadly qualified by the feeling that that journey which 
had been so pleasant, and growing daily more fasci- 
nating was now at an end altogether. Such of my 
readers as have perused Collins's " Cruise upon 
wheels," will understand our feelings better, if they 
call to mind those charming passages at the conclusion 
of the volume, when the cruise is finished, and poor 
Blinkers has to be sold. 

But although I have finished my personal narra- 
tive of the march, the description of it as a military 
undertaking would be incomplete, without some re- 
ference to the method in which the artillery materiel 
was transported, belonging to the Armstrong field 
batteries, which had come from England with the 
other reinforcements. That reference shall be as 
brief as possible. When the batteries came abroad, 
the Government had a number of sleighs made in 
Woolwich Arsenal, which were very pretty to look at, 
and perhaps very good in theory, but which would 
have failed lamentably in practice, had they ever been 
employed. I was not present when the first lot was 
unpacked at St. John, New Brunswick, but I am 
told that they were received by the natives with howls 
of derision. They were condemned at once as being far 



246 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

too heavy for the roads ; and unfit for travelling over 
the drifts and hollows, which afford no hindrance to 
the light country sleds. On these latter the whole of 
the materiel of the batteries was carried, without any 
inconvenience or injury. The horses were purchased 
at the different stations where the batteries ultimately 
served, with the exception of a few horses belonging 
to a battery of the 8th brigade, which came with it 
from England. A good many were lost belonging to 
this battery during the voyage, the transport in which 
they were embarked having met with very rough 
weather ; and the survivors were in a sad plight on 
their arrival at Halifax. A battery of the 4th brigade 
at Montreal, which came out in the Great Eastern 
some time before the Trent affair, brought its own 
horses ; there being ample accommodation for them 
on board so large a vessel. 

Quebec is the city in Canada round which is col- 
lected the greatest historical interest. It is not for 
me to recal to my reader the days of Wolfe and 
Montcalm, men round whose memories is encircled a 
halo of undying glory ; nor is it for me to recount the 
various occasions in our American wars, when the 
picturesque city held as bold and prominent a place 
in history, as its rugged heights do in nature. It is 
for me to mention merely the few features in its 
appearance which first strike the traveller, and to 
allude to the life one may lead in this our old and 
imposing garrison in the west. 

Quebec, as my readers well know, is on the north 
side of the St. Lawrence, at a part where, approach- 
ing the Gulf, the river is gradually widening, and 



THE MARCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC. 247 

where it is affected very considerably by the rise and 
fall of the tides. The hill on which the citadel is 
built rises almost perpendicularly from the river, and 
the whole town is on a steep incline. It is the only 
instance I have met in America of a walled city, 
with regular gates and bridges ; more resembling an 
old continental city, or our own Portsmouth, than an 
American town. The various barracks and their oc- 
cupants in January, 1862, when I arrived in Quebec, 
were the Palace-Gate and Hope-Gate Barracks, 
occupied by batteries of the 7th Brigade Royal Artil- 
lery, relieved now by the 10th Brigade ; the citadel, 
occupied by the 60th Rifles, relieved since by the 
62nd Regiment; and the Jesuit barracks occupied 
then and now by the 1st Battalion of the 17th Regi- 
ment. 

The warlike stores in Quebec are of great extent,, 
but in many respects considerably antiquated ; and the 
walls are manned by scores of guns, which are very 
imposing to look at, but would raise a smile at Shoe- 
buryness, if adduced as specimens of our colonial 
defences. The artillery practice is generally, nay 
always, carried on in winter on the ice on a small 
river which falls into the St. Lawrence. The brigade 
drills are carried on upon the famous plains of Abra- 
ham, where a monument has been erected to the 
joint memory of Wolfe and Montcalm. The idea 
which prompted but one and the same memorial of 
these gallant enemies was a beautiful and chivalrous 
one. It is well for our soldiers to remember that as 
duty is the ruling principle of their active life, so in the 
death which duty exacts as a sacrifice in battle, there 



248 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

is a salve to heal over for ever the rivalry and con- 
tests of life, and side by side may soldiers of both 
armies lie, in the one mystical shroud of duty done, 
and of bravery to the death. 

The walks and drives round Quebec are very 
beautiful, the favourite being the celebrated Falls of 
Montmorenci. In winter, there is a great attraction 
found at these falls in a huge ice cone, which is 
formed. The chief streets in Quebec are John and 
Louis streets, but there is in most respects quite an- 
other city in the Lower Town, by the river, when 
compared with the upper and more fashionable dis- 
trict. There is a good club-house ; a cathedral and 
many beautiful churches; and beyond the gates a 
capital covered skating rink. 

Many of the private dwelling-houses are well built 
and commodious, and their owners hospitable. In- 
deed, in point of hospitality to the garrison, Quebec 
far surpasses the other cities of Canada; and you 
generally find that those military men who are most 
enthusiastic on Canada, have served in Quebec. The 
society is good, and more professional than one gene- 
rally meets in American cities ; and its position com- 
pared with its rival, Montreal, is very like that of 
Edinburgh compared with Glasgow. There is a con- 
siderable French element, which gives a piquancy to 
social intercourse, far from disagreeable, and if one 
dare give an opinion on so delicate a matter, I should 
think that in point of feminine beauty Quebec reigns 
monarch in Canada. 

There is a tandem club, plenty of sleighing, skating, 
a little, but very little, cricket, and all the indoor 



THE MAKCH CONTINUED, AND QUEBEC. 249 

amusements of a large city. There was rather a 
dearth of means for gratifying a love of literature, 
but perhaps this was only apparent, and due to one's 
ignorance of the reading whereabouts. There is no 
lack of newspaper literature — where is there in 
America? — and the Quebec Chronicle is one of the 
most important, if not the most important, colonial 
journal. 

For sport, military men generally go down the 
river to the Saguenay, where, in addition to this more 
active relaxation, one can spend days of contempla- 
tive idleness among picturesque landscape. But there 
is also steam communication, at a reasonable rate, be- 
tween Quebec and the eastern shore of New Bruns- 
wick, where better fishing can be had than in any part 
of America. 

During more than half the year there is direct 
steam communication between Quebec and England, 
by the Montreal line of steamers, and at a lower rate 
than is charged by the Cunard line. As a contra to 
this, however, we must bear in mind the numerous 
misfortunes of the Canadian line, and the wonderful 
luck and excellent discipline of the other. 

There is a small and pretty island farther down the 
river, where the musketry practice of the infantry is 
carried on during the summer. But my experience 
of these small Canadian islands, although limited to 
one, St. Helen's, opposite Montreal, was so unfavour- 
able, that I will not allow myself to be trapped into 
any enthusiasm by the blandishments of its Quebec 
sister. 

But the mention of St. Helen's, the last garrison in 



250 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

the west in which I served, has curdled the ink in my 
pen, and raised emotions which prevent me talking 
reasonably on any other subject. In case my pub- 
lishers should take out a commission de lunatico in- 
quirendo, I think I had better pull up, and, leaving 
any further description of Quebec to some other 
hand, I shall take a fresh pen, and in a new chapter 
devote myself to the unburdening of my indignant 
bosom on the subject of " Our miserable little 
Island." 



251 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND.' 



Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord : 

Antonio. He'd sow it with nettle seed : 

Sebastian. Or docks or mallows. 



I wonder if any of my readers ever suffered from 
the Crusoe mania, a disease which makes one pine to 
be away in some lone island in the sea, where the 
only thing to be dreaded would be the print of the 
human foot, where some intelligent dog or goat 
should more than compensate for the loss of the 
human race ; where, under the exertions of one's un- 
aided hand, acres of wild ground should become 
fertile, and damp caves be changed into impregnable 
fortresses from without, but imperial salons within ? 

Hear, then, the words of one who dwelt on a lonely 
island, with the fortress old but ready-made, with a 
marvellous lack of society, but an aggravating abun- 
dance of the beautiful ; near to a large city, and yet 
so far, owing to a rapid river — and then believe me 
that islands are a delusion, and solitude a snare. How 
often have I gnashed my teeth, as, meeting some 



252 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

adventurous acquaintance engaged in a pic-nic, I 
have been greeted with, " What ! you living here ! 
Oh, how charming you must find it ! So picturesque, 
so quiet, so lovely!" At these moments lunacy be- 
came imminent, and the melancholy which, from 
hopelessness of sympathy, I was obliged to conceal, be- 
came a devouring fiend. 

Our island was small, uncommonly small, so con- 
foundedly small that, including every stone and pro- 
montory in its whole circumference, we could accom- 
plish its circuit in half an hour ; and our constitutional 
walks must have averaged generally ten or twenty per 
diem. For I have always observed in my life that the 
more restricted our opportunities are for gratifying a 
propensity, the more methodical and determined are 
we in carrying it out, and the more positive we are 
in maintaining the necessity of this gratification. 
Chiefly so is this the case in the matter of exercise ; 
for no man appreciates the value and pleasure of that 
physical abandonment so much as the individual who 
is unable to gratify it. But yesterday the course of 
my duty led me to visit, in the regimental cells, a 
gunner, of whom the only thing one could safely 
predicate would be, a thorough and complete ac- 
quaintance with the amenities and torments of that 
domicile. On my asking whether he had any com- 
plaints to offer, and being answered in the affirmative, 
I awaited with some interest his details; and much 
amused was I to find that not on the subject of indif- 
ferent fare, not because his bed was hard, his pillow 
non-existent, his blankets few and far between, 
neither that his convivial qualities were lost in the 
weaiy silence of solitary confinement, but solely on 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 253 

the score of want of sufficient exercise did this lazy- 
scoundrel make his wail — this man, who looked on 
an ordinary hour's parade as an infliction, a fatigue as 
an injustice, and a heavy marching-order turn-out as 
an enormity only to be expiated by enormous libations 
of beer ! 

\Ve came to regard our island much as that un- 
happy polar bear in the Regent's Park Zoological 
Gardens must view the few wet slabs on which it 
walks up and down, sometimes forwards, sometimes 
backwards, now wagging its head solemnly, now 
bowing ridiculously, yet all the while affecting to 
think that it had the whole unlimited use of the 
Arctic regions, but failing horribly in the attempt. 
To make matters worse, our island was in a river, not 
in stationary water — a river with a rapid current and 
mighty volume — no less a river than the great St. 
Lawrence. The wind blew this river into ugly 
waves at times, and cut us, with our little skiffs, off 
from the mainland ; and, even in calm weather, the 
weary current so prolonged the labour of crossing, 
that after achieving the feat one always felt inclined 
never to re-attempt it. 

Our island is situated opposite Montreal, the com- 
mercial capital of Canada, and is surrounded on other 
sides by the fertile plains of St. Lambert, St. Hya- 
cinth, and La Prairie. It is a military station only, 
and to civilians landing the stern warnino; is given 
that martial law is to be obeyed. Oh, merry paradox, 
and strange picture of peace and war ! where the 
guns are strewn thickest, the grass is greenest and the 
wild flowers fairest ; where tons and tons of powder lie 
buried in a dark magazine, the frogs croak loudest in 



254 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

my ears as I visit the lonely post at night, and the 
wild strawberry blushes under my feet, and the elms 
wave greenly over my head. My sword, as I do my 
rounds, clanks not heavily on paved parades, nor 
echoes ringingly in the ears of armed men ; it drags 
lightly over the green moss, and rings only against 
some fallen tree or flower-buried stone. In Dickens's 
" Bleak House " the sketch of Mr. Boythorn raging 
and storming with the canary perched on his head is 
not more ludicrous — ay, even to the pathetic — than 
the picture which I see every day. The birds perched 
on the top of order-boards, hanging on silent walls, 
but breathing the sternest denunciations against 
possible offenders ; while the spider, weaving its 
web on a summer day across the door of a vacant 
sentry-box, is no inappropriate companion to the 
martins that build their nests amid the pile of shot 
and shell, and feed their young in the shadow of 
cannon and other instruments of war. 

Our island made believe to have many merits which 
would not bear the minute inspection of residents, and 
at last we came to look on Mr. Pumblechook as an in- 
carnation of candour and modesty in comparison with 
this arch impostor. It pretended — did our island — to 
be cool when the mainland was grilling its inhabi- 
tants ; but do ye bear witness, O panting and outraged 
few, who lay day after day under any possible shade 
dissolving into fluid, until the tormenting insects, 
once so boldly resisted, came to make their meals on 
our helpless bodies unavenged. 

Bear witness too, the open doors and windows, the 
iced water and sherry cobblers, the departing appe- 



255 

tzfce, the increasing liver, the despondency, apathy, 
weariness of life. 

Our island pretended to have unlimited capacities 
for cricket, and made much of a few yards of turf on 
one side. Need I say that there the grass became 
capricious in its growth, that the cows in the island 
made that spot a rendezvous for their elephantine 
sports, and something worse ; that a good hit sent the 
ball either into the river or up into the tree-tops ; that 
no living batsman could make certain of a ball with 
such a background of dark stumps and fallen trees ; 
and that the unhappy long-stop (heu ! me miserum ! ) 
had to stand amid a series of pitfalls which inevitably 
covered him with ignominy. 

It had a ludicrous idea that it was fortified, had our 
island. There was a decayed and trembling draw- 
bridge, and in various parts of the island were the 
remnants of what may once have been formidable 
gates, but whose rheumatic bars were now swayed 
about, creaking and groaning, by every summer 
breeze. Under my window was a platform, once 
meant to support a gun, but which was now past sup- 
porting itself. From under its rotting timbers one 
day I heard a sound, by no means unfamihar, but 
hardly warlike, and presently out strutted a stately 
fowl, accompanied by a brood of newly-hatched 
chickens, whose chirping seemed a satire on the 
heavy boom meant to echo amid the dense smoke 
hanging over the gun whose existence never went be- 
yond some sanguine fancy. 

We had an atrocious and w T eedy parapet, bro- 
ken up by many a winter's frost, and washed by 



256 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

many a summer's rain, where, in idle hours and 
hours of loneliness (and that they were many let it 
testify), we would erect flower stands and rustic seats, 
sow seeds which never appeared, and plant flowers 
only to die, or, like some mariner on the deck of a 
drifting vessel, would eye, through eager glass, any 
passing vessel, as if we hoped for release. There 
was a sallyport meant for warriors which we used for 
suspending mutton ; there were magazines, meant for 
deadly shell, which we made reservoirs for beer ; and 
while our own bomb-proof barracks were allowed 
quietly to decay, a partial department or an idiotic 
Government patched and repaired annually wooden 
buildings weak as those of cards, and intrusted to 
their mouldering walls piles of destructible but valu- 
able material, whose chief characteristic was inappro- 
priateness on an island. We had there two or three 
field batteries, with all the harness complete, on an 
island where not one gun could travel, and only one 
horse existed. It had a strange history, had that 
horse, or rather absence of history : for, older than the 
oldest inhabitants, no tradition of its advent had been 
handed down. In winter it slept in the ruins of what 
had once been a prison, and lived, or rather starved, 
upon what it could pick up ; in summer it blew itself 
out with green food until the skeleton of the spring 
renewed its youth like the witch of old, and turned out 
again in the autumn, sleek, placid, and comfortable. 

To further gloom in our minds we had a cemetery 
on our island, where, according to the rude wooden 
tombstones, the victims to a plague which once broke 
out on the island were huddled in unseemly crowd : 
prisoners in their lives, in their deaths they were not 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 257 

released. It was situated in a gloomy recess, where 
tlie snow lay longest, and the sunbeams could not 
penetrate ; where the grass was rank and weedy, and 
your feet went splashing through green and hidden 
pools, while the white tombstones stood out in the un- 
certain light like ghosts. 

For anachronisms we had our block-houses, our 
gates, and our guard-rooms. On the tops of imposing 
rocks were to be seen dark windowless buildings 
buried in a rank undergrowth of shrubs, towers whose 
dismal walls whisper of death and defiance ; but ah ! 
when we come near them, like many men whom we 
meet in life, we detect the cracked roof, the rotting 
rafters, and read in their lineaments weakness and 
imbecility. 

And our gates, what gates so fearful in aspect, what 
spikes more likely to make the human frame shiver, 
till a nearer inspection shows the broken lock and 
missing hinge, and some summer breeze comes and 
shakes their creaking ribs in ribaldry, like rheumatism 
and palsy playing antics with a cripple's bones. And 
our guard-rooms — one there is on the quiet beach of 
the quietest part of our island, where adventurous 
cows wander in utter amazement, where solemn pigs 
grunt, and vain fowls cackle — half, merely, of a house 
whose other half is tenanted by an ancient dame 
whose life is spent in washing linen, which, in the 
form of nameless garments, flaps in the very face of 
our bearded guard. Ah ! this, our guard-room, is the 
climax of our paradox, and here we sit down and 
laugh. For seizing an hour for rest from her steam- 
ing toil, our ancient dame sits down on the rickety 
seat before the guard-room door, and laughs with the 

S 



258 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

men as if they were but children playing at some 
solemn game, while the fowls pick seeds from under 
the butts of their carbines, and the wild duck comes 
close in to the shore as if it knew they were not 
loaded ; and the clank of their swords as they saunter 
up and down mingles with the drowzy hum of grass- 
hoppers, or the whisperings of the trees. 

And our island had its ghost, in a dark frog- 
haunted pool near our largest magazine, in a lonely 
part of the island, the solitary sentry has been known 
to see rise in the still watches of the night a green 
lady whose chief amusement was to scream — a hys- 
terical ghost whose fit never wore off. 

The only other inhabitants were a few old pen- 
sioners, encouraged to live there no doubt by an 
economical government with the object of accelerating 
their end and of shortening their pensions. Inasmuch 
as we were wholly dependent on these individuals for 
the produce of the cow and the domestic fowl, we did 
not object to the arrangement. A few transitory 
individuals in the form of infantry come over for 
musketry instruction were never regarded by us as 
part of the community; indeed, living as they did 
under canvas and being engaged the whole day, we 
would hardly have been aware of their existence were 
it not that their firing often closed one angle of " our 
island " against our daily constitutionals. 

There was an abundance of ornithological life on 
the island ; no fewer than thirty-seven varieties of 
birds having been known to visit it. 

But by the insect world did our island seem to be 
most highly appreciated — no limit being placed to 
their variety and number. 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 259 

Every day some new and more horrible species 
would make its appearance, displaying to our appalled 
optics a singularly superfluous number of wings and 
legs. And among this class of the animal kingdom, 
I have observed that our loathing towards them is 
always in proportion as their legs exceed the respect- 
able and commonplace number of four. In the hot 
evenings of a Canadian summer, sitting reading or 
writing in one's room, the windows were always left 
open to create a draught. The common way of 
lighting the apartment was by suspending against the 
walls paraffine lamps with reflectors attached. The 
brilliancy of these attracted the insects from all parts 
of the surrounding darkness, and one would soon hear 
the buzz and conversation of enterprising individuals 
rushing wildly to the lamps and destruction. The 
walls and floor surrounding these lamps would have af- 
forded an interesting field for study to the entomolo- 
gist, covered as they were with the flattened bodies 
of every variety of insect, differing in everything save 
the common penchant for suicide. I remember one 
evening when I had been reading the "Woman in 
White," or some other work calculated to make the 
hair stand on end or otherwise unstring the nervous 
system, I heard in the room a deeper voice than the 
insects generally employed, accompanied by a sound 
as .of a female in pattens. A hurried examination 
soon disclosed a mysterious animal of the size of a 
full-grown and well-fed mouse endeavouring to secrete 
itself behind the door. Had I done the thing properly 
I should have addressed it as Mr. Poe did his raven, 
but I merely devoted myself to disappointing the in- 
truder ; I accordingly proceeded with rude intent and 
s2 



260 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

ready boot to add him to the other group of insects in 
the room already victims to felo-de-se; but, to my 
horror, and with what in my fright seemed a yell of 
triumph and mockery, he raised something on his 
back ; shot out several pairs of wings ; tucked in his 
legs, and rose, brushing my pale face as he passed, and 
ultimately alighting on a white curtain, where, pro- 
ducing his legs again and packing up his wings, he sat 
crooning and buzzing to himself in a very discontented 
tone. By this time my feelings were awful ; had he 
produced a revolver and aimed it at me I should 
hardly have been surprised, and I thought seriously 
of leaving him in undisturbed possession of the apart- 
ment. I resolved, however, to give him one chance, 
and opening all the windows and the door — even 
more than before — in a most alluring manner, I 
stood at a respectful distance and commenced hissing 
at him and using every discordant sound I could in- 
vent, until an insect of the slightest musical tempera- 
ment would have made its escape in self-defence. But 
although this gentleman had horns he seemed to have 
no ear, and I could almost swear he turned round and 
winked at me in derision. Then, stowing away his 
legs as before, he made straight at me, and I turned 
ignominiously and fled. I forget how I ultimately 
procured his departure ; I rather think he got an im- 
pression that there was some one on the staircase 
even more nervous than myself, and while he peeped 
out to ascertain I drove the door to in triumph, 
leaving him objecting loudly on the landing. I fell 
on the sofa in relief and a cold perspiration, and 
meditated on the anomalies of the insect world in 
general, and of this individual in particular. 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 261 

I need hardly say that on our island the number of 
dogs was as the sands of the desert. The Interna- 
tional Dog Show at Islington was shadowed forth 
among us. Dogs of breeding, dogs of none ; small 
dogs, large dogs, amiable dogs, vicious dogs ; dogs 
with blase look, dogs with pricked ears and impudent 
eye; all were there. The loneliness of the island 
compelled us in the absence of their betters to turn 
our eyes and affections towards some of the lower 
orders of creation — hinc Mi canes. 

A month or two on the island rendered us all very 
dyspeptic ; and dyspepsia rendered us miserably un- 
certain in our tempers. We would part in cheerful 
and jovial mood, say at ten o'clock : at eleven we would 
meet taciturn and scowling; on parade we would 
study the countenance of our commanding officer as 
he came on, with feelings akin to those of a dog 
walking on tip-toe round a strange and larger dog; 
mingled feelings of awe, interest, and uncertainty. 
Did his face look bright and his eyes clear — we 
also at once looked bright and felt relieved. Did the 
the skin look muddy, the eye yellow, the general 
appearance bilious, then we looked out for squalls. 
For myself, I look back with disgust to the cynical 
and misanthropic brute which my residence on that 
island made me. Practising at cricket, if anyone 
made a hit which necessitated my running for it, I 
scowled at and hated that man with a murderous 
hatred. Our once placid rubber became vicious as 
any old ladies' at Bath ; we criticised our food until 
the cook must frequently have contemplated suicide 
in despair ; we even gave up corresponding much with 
our friends in the outer world, partly, indeed, because 



262 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

we had nothing to say, but partly also because in our 
bosoms the milk of human kindness, that lifeblood of 
the domestic affections, had turned to gall. We had 
our moods pensive, and moods merry, verging even 
on hysterics ; the former I associate chiefly in my 
mind with sherry cobblers, the latter with unlimited 
claret-cup. For, mark you, the sherry cobbler is par 
excellence the cup of solitude ; but who brews Bad- 
minton for himself alone ? 

We had a snug little mess, and took in an enor- 
mous amount of newspapers, which, in the form of 
pipelights, ultimately filled a harmless little bronze 
image of a mortar, which, in admirable keeping with 
the other defences of the island, bore in huge letters 
on its side the inscription " Terrible." The catering 
of the mess passed through several hands, every one 
commencing zealously, but passing speedily into the 
apathy which was the inevitable consequence of 
living on our island. Each caterer's career is associa- 
ted in my mind with ludicrous misfortune. One, I 
remember, filled all the empty wine cases with soil, 
and sowed enormous quantities of mustard and cress, 
enough, had it lived, to supply the wants of the grand 
hotel itself. Need I say that as soon as it approached 
the stage which gladdened the caterer's heart and 
made the rest of us dream of a cool accompaniment to 
our grills, some mysterious atmospheric influence pecu- 
liar to our island instantly blighted it ; and long after 
the abdication of that caterer, these melancholy boxes 
lined the parapets, a sad check on the presumption of 
his successors. One of these latter thought of chickens 
as a species of live stock which were likely to do him 
credit and be exempt from meteorological phenomena. 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 263 

Crossing at early morn in a fit of zeal and a canoe, 
lie procured at a price not more than half as much 
again as others paid, a brood of eighteen or so from 
an old woman in the market of Bonsecours. Two 
came to a melancholy end in crossing, being smothered 
in the basket, and, with one exception, the others all 
died, never having attained a larger size although 
consuming a fabulous amount of food. The unhappy 
survivor, ever eating, never growing, lived in solitude 
in an enormous residence improvised for the occasion 
and faced with an enormous grating of iron. Before 
this grating, the canine and feline inhabitants would 
sit for hours watching impotently the movements of 
the miserable little inmate, and getting melancholy on 
the subject of its being beyond their reach. We had 
been at some pains in constructing many most inviting 
roosting bars, but in the most obstinate manner it 
preferred an extremely uncomfortable angle of the 
edifice, which seemed to us singularly ill-adapted for 
repose. I forget its ultimate fate, it was either the 
pip or curry. 

Among Englishmen everywhere the weather forms 
a never-failing topic of conversation, while it is also 
employed as a scape-goat for many evils. But on 
our island it was an almost universal scape-goat, re- 
ceiving the credit alike of physical and of mental 
depression. One of us I remember had a theory that 
our troubles were due to the mountain, elsewhere de- 
scribed. This mountain rising as it does behind the 
city of Montreal eclipsed any view we might other- 
wise have had to the northward, and checked the cool 
breeze which might have fanned our fevered brows. 
The very name of this mountain, even writing as I 



264 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

now do at some distance of time and space, exasperates 
me, and reminds me of much aggravation caused 
thereby. Everyone you meet in Montreal, every 
shop-keeper you engage in conversation, every waiter 
who may attend you, however you might strive to 
lead the conversation, invariably broke in with the 
dreaded and inevitable question, " Have you been up 
the mountain ? Its great charm was a cemetery half 
way up, where people were laid in their graves in a 
situation reminding one forcibly of the suspended 
coffin of Mahomet, midway between heaven and earth. 

But to return. I frequently meditated writing 
a treatise on the effects of solitude on the soul and 
stomach ; but want of energy, while showing in my 
own person one of its effects, robbed the world of a 
similar opportunity. But looking back on that dreary 
time I can most positively assert that the absence of 
that mental friction which one has in the midst of 
civilised communities is productive of much disease 
in the mind, and, I think, conducive to indigestion in 
the body. One may, perhaps, think or study alone in 
a warped and prejudiced manner ; but, good heavens ! 
to dine alone, there is the evil. Nor is it any mitiga- 
tion that two or three others are alone with you in 
your sad predicament ; for too early do we sound the 
depths of our respective minds, too soon do we know 
by heart — aye ! even to loathing, our mutual witticisms, 
— too soon does that awful social hour arrive when 
during a whole meal we cannot raise anions; ourselves 
even the shadow of a laugh ! 

But the most melancholy feature in our imprison- 
ment was the woful lack of energy and application 
which supervened. Two of my brother officers con- 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 265 

templated writing a treatise on some such subject as 
Napoleon I., and agreed to divide the labour in rather 
a novel manner; one doing the reading, the other the 
writing. They failed to get beyond the first chapter, 
and ended as most of our enterprises did — in beer. 

In an effervescing fit of zeal, we all agreed one clay 
to go in for water-colours. Rushing over to Montreal 
we purchased the materials, hunted up and down the 
streets for a master, engaged him to come over regu- 
larly for purposes of instruction'; got through our first 
lesson, yawned through our second, and on the morn- 
ing of the third sent him a message that on that day 
we were engaged. His periodical visits coming round 
on us, made us soon regard him as another Old Man 
of the Sea ; nor could we find any way or excuse for 
getting rid of him, for he was an excellent artist and 
a tolerable teacher, nor could we plead no further 
need of his services. At last, one day, there came a 
rumour that we were to be removed to Quebec ; so 
meeting in solemn conclave, we concocted an elabo- 
rate letter to him, stating that our preparations for 
departure were so urgent, our setting our house in 
order so engrossing, that we feared we could not give 
that attention to his valuable instructions which they 
merited, and therefore, &c. &c. 

TTe attempted fishing from our island, and occa- 
sionally caught some of the most diminutive fish that 
ever existed, provided, with what seemed to us, a most 
unnecessary abundance of bones. Duck-shooting was 
attempted ; but further than a great amount of dis- 
comfort incurred, and firing off our guns on our re- 
turn, we can hardly be said to have had much excite- 
ment from this sport. 



2S6 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Shut out as we were from the world, I remember, 
as in a dream, that we were always craving for news. 
The post came over twice a day, and we generally 
went down in a body to meet him, and lived in con- 
stant expectation of letters. Every time any of our 
number crossed to Montreal he was received with 
yells of execration if he dared to return without some 
intelligence. Fortunately, the very air in America, 
that year, was rife with rumours, and our morbid and 
almost Yankee anxiety for news was generally grati- 
fied abundantly. As for the little events that oc- 
curred in our own community, they furnished us with 
as much conversation as any choice tit-bits of scandal 
would an old lady's tea-table in a country village. 
An occasional desertion (I wonder every one did not 
not desert), sickness, an exchange, or any small mat- 
ter, was long and well-ventilated. One man, I re- 
member, disappeared one night, and after a consider- 
able lapse of time his body was brought up from the 
muddy bottom of the river by the dredging-machine. 
The chatter about this was childish ; and though the 
man had not been overpopular in his life, yet all were 
anxious to go to his funeral for a new sensation. 

I had almost forgot to mention, among other enter- 
prises which we undertook with spasmodic energy — 
that we seriously contemplated a heavy course of gar- 
dening. An acre of land, or so, near our quarters, 
had once been cultivated for potatoes. On this we 
cast covetous eyes, and soon obtained authority to ap- 
propriate it. A solemn commission was sent into 
Montreal to purchase seed, tools, flower-pots, and 
frames, sufficient altogether to start in life, with the 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 267 

greatest comfort, several market-gardeners. Before 
the purchased goods reached us, the fit had worn off ; 
and with the exception of one small bed of salad, on 
which, while yet in infancy, many cows danced one 
frenzied night, the acre or so remained Bareacres the 
whole summer. 

So much for the dark side of our island life ; such 
was its weary routine. Exhausting it was, alike to 
mind and body ; leaving on us few impressions save a 
sensation as of dull, deadened pain — a conviction of 
wasted energy and of lost time. I am sure, to speak 
figuratively, that in the time of our residence there, 
the clocks of our lives were put back several years, 
and the elasticity of their springs for ever injured. 

But to our cloud there was a silver lining. There 
was one thing of which we never wearied. At night, 
on the shore or on the green parapet, to stand watch- 
ing the play of the merry stars on that hurrying river, 
or the grand white sheen of the patient moon spread- 
ing over its surface like a garment. Shadows on the 
shore, light on the water and in the tree-tops, a great 
silence everywhere — one never wearied then. The 
buzz of some lazy insect, or the echo of distant oars 
on the St. Lawrence, with the cry, at stated intervals, 
of " All's well" from the sentry on his lonely post 
under the elms by the haunted pool, these were the 
only sounds that broke the sweet stillness of that 
moonlight, and made it seem stiller and sweeter. So 
might one dream for ever in that happier land where 
the Lord himself shall lighten all things, and the na- 
tions of them that are saved shall dwell in the light 
of it! 



268 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

And as one would stand gazing, he would see the 
many lights of a great city come twinkling over the 
rippling water as if to cheer without interrupting 
one's solitude. Or one might hear, borne fitfully on 
the night-air, the bells of many churches sounding 
each passing hour, or inviting one to pray in a voice 
more solemn in this still island than in the crowded 
streets and thronging populace of a restless city. As 
I open my mind to the thoughts born of these solemn 
chimes, I hear, caught up by the wind and borne to 
my ears, those mysterious sounds swelling up from a 
distant multitude which the fancy so loves to dwell on 
and analyse ! 

And in our island we have objects which awaken 
and cultivate many faculties which in a crowded 
coimnunity would lie dormant. We have scenes, too, 
that quicken the imagination — the true ruler of the 
mind after all — scenes of great and varied beauty ; 
and we have always in that little dell a lonely group 
of bleaching headstones, which whisper to us that even 
this little spot has not been overlooked by the keen- 
eyed reaper, Death ! And in this dreamy phase of 
our life the seasons may come and go, and bring with 
them their respective occupations and interests ; but 
they do not bring weariness. 

To-day, as it were, I am sitting in the shade of a 
green tree, and watching between me and the great 
river the butterflies glance, and the birds flutter and 
sing; to-morrow, the leaves are red and yellow, and 
the wind whirls them before me, where but yester- 
day were the gaudy insects ; and so rapid seems the 
versatile year, that it seems but another day when I 



" OUR MISERABLE LITTLE ISLAND." 269 

find our island clad with snow, and the river overcast 
as with a sullen and immovable mask, while the trees 
wave their wild arms naked in the chilly wind, and 
the birds are silent and the butterflies gone ! 

But to thee, O great river, as of old to his gods did 
the cultured Grecian kneel, does our fancy bend in 
an adoring sympathy. I cannot analyse the senti- 
ment, but we soon came to personify the river; and 
though now smooth, now turbid, now crowded with 
sweeping craft, and anon lonely with a great loneli- 
ness, still it was always as of a being that we talked 
and thought of it — this great river St. Lawrence. 
Sometimes drowsily watching it speeding on like 
some living thing bent on some earnest purpose, we 
would see in it a picture of our own minds in this her- 
mit life. The varied blocks and sheets of ice hurried 
down in early spring by its restless current, are not 
more varied than the thoughts which chase one 
another on the placid river of our mind ; the lights 
and shadows that dance across its surface are not 
more rapid in their transitions than the dreams that 
chequer our half -waking fancy by the side of this 
green river, in the light of this western sun. Yet 
sooner even than these floating fragments shall melt 
in the glare of a noonday sun, will the half -formed 
thoughts disappear in the Lethe of the past before the 
glare of an ever-changing present, or the dazzle of 
the hopes that crowd a luring future. Shall we not, 
then, as yonder child reaches its little hand to seize 
from the rapid current some waif branch sweeping 
out to the sea, seize also some fancies from the stream 
of our thought ere they sweep on to that ocean of ob- 



270 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

livion which we all carry within us, until that last 
day shall bid its waters, like yonder real waves before 

us, give up its shadowy dead? 

***** 

But as our jailer, we would sometimes, in our dark 
moods, hate this cold, unrelenting river, sweeping 
round us with surging arms, and binding us in with 
fetters that were dark often and deadly. Deadly, in- 
deed ! as one night showed us. Four people left be- 
hind after some pic-nic, started in a small boat pulled 
by one of our own men, and ere they had gone a 
hundred yards from the shore were upset, through 
some sudden panic or unexpected wave. A wild cry- 
pierced the darkness, as a glittering fish parts the 
black waters of some sullen pool, and four of the five 
were hurried into eternity. Three were women, and 
two were young ; but this deadly stream knows not of 
age or sex, but sucks them, in boa-like grasp, to a 
choking death. Few sadder sights did the sun wit- 
ness, some two or three days after, than the huddled 
group of dead that the glutted waters threw up on a 
small island near us, with white faces and distorted 
limbs, lying in fantastic attitudes, grouped by that 
hideous limner, Death! Hurry the unseemly dead 
out of sight, as we soon shall out of mind ; the earth 
will not give them up as this dainty river doth, until 
one day we wot of, when the echoes of a great trump 
shall reach the deepest and darkest grave, and wake 
the humblest and most forgotten dead ! 

***** 

And at last we left our island. On a bright Sep- 
tember day a small steamer came and carried us away 
to put us on our first stage to England. We were 



271 

marched on board with hardly energy enough to 
cheer ; and we babbled in an idiotic manner to one 
another. We could not realise that we were actually 
going, that the speck on the horizon, getting smaller 
and smaller, was our island, fading from our sight for 
ever. And in the wild nights at sea, its image rose 
before our minds in a strange and unearthly calm, 
such as one could fancy to a man awakened from a 
trance, must the dim, mysterious gap in his life ap- 
pear. And then, months after, came the first letter I 
received from one of our successors on the island. 
It seemed so strange to hold that thin sheet of paper 
in my hand and to think that the words had been 
written by the drowsy trees and scorching grass I 
knew so well. Instinctively it all came before me like 
a dream — the grey barracks, the dark pool, the little 
yard of the silent, the hot air, the surging river. And 
like the forgiveness of injuries, when those who did 
them are dead, so did this, our island, seem more en- 
durable now, when far away from its dreary paths, 
its melancholy shores. 



272 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE TRADE AND EDUCATION OF OUR NORTH 
AMERICAN COLONIES. 

I cannot say that my book has as yet given the 
public much in the way of useful statistics. I have 
written more from memory than from notes, and my 
recollections have been of the idle lazy sort which are 
often pleasing enough to the individual, but sadly 
boring to the public. Let me in this chapter try and 
redeem myself in this particular, and before conclud- 
ing my short account of our American Provinces 
let me give a few facts and tables, throwing light on 
a trade which, although in its infancy, bids fan to be 
herculean, and on an education which although not 
exactly carried out on a regular system, has yet ad- 
vantages too prominent to be overlooked. 

And first on the trade of our American Colonies, 
let me indicate its vastness by illustration. 

In Prince Edward's Island — our smallest American 
Colony — the following table has been recently pub- 
lished, showing the amount cleared at the Custom 
House as exported from the port of Charlottetown : 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 



273 



1 


Value. 






£ s. 


[d. 


665,599 bushels oats 
210,297 „ potatoes . 

18,138 „ barley 
110,626 „ turnips 
806 barrels oatmeal 


66,599 18 

15,239 18 

3,627 12 

5,318 

. 1,209 10 











26,029 dozen eggs 
10,173 sheepskins 
21,958 lbs. wool . . . 


758 18 

. 2,543 5 

2,407 5 


4 

6 



£97,704 6 10 

The above articles enumerated are independent of 
timber, deals, lathwood, horses, horned cattle, sheep, 
poultry, pearl barley, beef, pork, dry fish, mackerel, 
herrings, oil, oysters, parsnips, carrots, hay, &c. 

In comparing the above with the exports of former 
years, we find that in 1830 the exports from the 
whole island were valued at 55,522/., about half the 
value of the exports from the one port of Charlotte- 
town during the past twelve months. These facts are 
taken from a recent number of a journal published in 
the province called the Islander, and they may be 
assumed as correct. 

Let us now turn to New Brunswick. Here we find 
that the amount of wood goods sent from St. John to 
Great Britain during 1863, has been in 314 vessels of 
221,798 tons: carrying 8,070 tons birch, 18,296 
tons pine, and 176,854,000 feet of deals. There 
were in the port of St. John on the 22nd December, 
1863, thirty-two ships of 26,557 tons, against 14 ships 
of 10,932 tons at the same date in 1862, of which 11 
were loading for Liverpool against 4 in 1862. 

T 



274 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Going now to Canada, we find the Quebec papers 
proclaiming that in the ship -building trade alone in 
that port the amount expended in wages during the 
year 1863 was a million dollars. It is stated that not 
less than 55,000 tons of shipping were constructed in 
that port, consuming at least 3,000,000 feet of lum- 
ber during the year 1863, and if the whole be 
averaged at forty dollars the ton, it will be seen that 
the value of the ship-building for one season has at- 
tained the handsome sum of 2,200,000 dollars. 

In Nova Scotia the gold trade bids fair to be ex- 
tremely remunerative. The press of . the Northern 
States speaks in the highest terms of it, and capital is 
pouring towards this province in a steady stream. 
Some specimens shown lately in Boston, Massachu- 
setts, were 22 carats fine, and the bars, two in num- 
ber, weighed respectively 25 oz. and 15 oz. For 
jewellery no gold is more beautiful. I find that in 
mineral wealth Nova Scotia is gradually assuming a 
prominent place. Her exports of coal during 1862, 
chiefly to the Northern States, exceeded 200,000 tons; 
her gold mines yielded 90,000^. sterling ; her trade in 
gypsum and grindstone has increased, while her ex- 
ports in iron ore and iron in pigs were considerable. 
Nova Scotia iron is better known in England than 
Nova Scotia itself. 

New Brunswick, if I may rely on the statement of 
an intelligent correspondent of the Nova Scotian 
journals, during the year 1861 mined 18,000 tons of 
Albertine coal chiefly for the oil ; above 12,000 tons 
of gypsum ; manufactured 43,000 casks of lime, and 
42,000 grindstones 

Being referred by the same writer to the official 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 



275 



census of these two provinces, we discovered the 
following interesting details taken in the later half of 
1861: 

Nova Scotia. New Brunswick. 

Acres cleared . . 1,028,032 3,787,524 

Estimated value of ") 18,801,365 31,169,946 

cleared land . J dollars. dollars. 

CHIEF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

Nova Scotia. New Brunswick. 

334,287 

312,081 
1,978,137 
3,824,864 
4,532,711 

901,296 



Hay, tons . . 
Wheat, bushels 
Oats, „ 

Potatoes, „ 
Butter, lbs. 



Cheese, lbs. 



324,160 

278,775 
2,656,883 
4,041,339 
4,591,447 

218,067 



The value of agricultural produce during that year 
in New Brunswick is stated at over seven millions and 
three quarters in dollars. The value of the lumber 
exported was three million dollars, though it is pro- 
bably much greater now. The value of ships built 
then more than a million and a half of dollars, 
although the present annual value is probably very 
much higher, owing to the impetus given by the 
American civil war to our carrying trade, and the 
temptations offered to the shipowners by that lucrative 
business — running the blockade. 

In Nova Scotia, during 1861, the tonnage of 
vessels built amounted to two hundred and fifty 
thousand tons, although probably this is far below the 
present annual total. Among gold items, we find 
that during the last summer, both at Tangier and 
t2 



276 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

Oldham, while the returns averaged 4 oz. of gold to a 
ton of quartz, they occasionally reached so high a s 
25 oz. ; and that at another place 53 oz. were taken 
out by five men in six days. In April, 1863, at Wine 
Harbour, the gold crushers turned out 476 oz. of gold, 
and at Sherbrooke, 605 oz. 

Continuing this loose way of stating commercial 
facts, we find, on consulting the provincial press, that 
at a place called Merigonish in Nova Scotia, during 
the last season, 40,000 lbs. of salmon had been pre- 
pared in cans, and exported. 

The value of money in a place is no bad way of 
showing the extent of its trade. In Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick the ordinary rate of interest is 6 per 
cent., while in Canada it rises higher. Money ad- 
vanced on mortgages, even first mortgage, well pro- 
tected by insurance or other collateral security, always 
demands 6 per cent. ; and when invested in house 
property, the investor would think himself ill-repaid 
unless he could get a return of 10 per cent. Even 
the Government Debentures, corresponding' to our 
Three per Cents., yield an interest of 6 per cent., and 
as they are seldom quoted higher in the market than 
6 or 7 per cent, premium, these Colonial Government 
Securities afford a remunerative and safe investment 
for loose capital. Bank Stock is a good, but some- 
what capricious form of speculation, yielding fre- 
quently enormous returns. The Bank of Montreal is 
one of the soundest companies in the world, if one 
may judge by the enormous premium its shares are 
quoted at in the market. 

When I was in the States, in the autumn of 1857, 
during a commercial panic, and again after the issue 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 277 

of greenbacks during the civil war, it was soothing 
to one's national vanity to see the high appreciation 
among the Yankees of British coin and British bank 
notes, whether Imperial or Colonial. A note of any 
Canadian or Nova Scotian Bank was received as 
greedily as specie. 

Land is not so regularly remunerative an invest- 
ment in our American colonies, as mortgages or 
Government Debentures. If one is prepared to 
spend money on the land purchased, there is no 
country in the world where good returns can be more 
certain, but if, on the other hand, one merely wishes 
to obtain some return from the land bought without 
any further expenditure, there is no doubt that this 
return will be very appreciably affected by the many 
depressing influences common in a new country, of 
which I may quote as an instance the scarcity of 
proper markets, and as another the difficulty of pro- 
curing sufficient labour at reasonable rates. 

But if a capitalist can afford to leave his money 
unproductive for a few years, I know of no way in 
which one might obtain a more certain return ulti- 
mately than by investing in wild lands near any 
increasing township, or any new line of railway, 
where, in time to come, the force of circumstances, 
without labour or further expenditure, will raise the 
value of the land immeasurably. 

A country where money is dear, and wages high, is 
the paradise of the lower orders. In former chapters 
I have hinted at the cheapness of provisions, an 
inevitable consequence of dear money and a small 
population, and I mention in this place the high rate 
of wages. In the Lower Provinces, and, I presume, 



278 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

also in Canada, the ordinary daily wage of a skilled 
labourer is over j& dollar a day, and I have seen the 
wages of slaters and stonemasons rise to three dollars 
a clay. This, with beef at 3d. per lb., and tea at 
Is. 6d. to 2s., will satisfy my reader that America is 
no bad place for working men. But mere unskilled 
labour is not so certain of good wages; in fact, 
common labourers and domestic servants are better 
off in England. 

For the middle classes, our American colonies offer 
a comfortable home. Cheap housekeeping without 
parsimony, light taxes, delightful climate, the prestige 
of the British flag, without many of the drawbacks of 
the old country — all these unite to form a pleasant 
residence, and to do away with home sickness, with- 
out lessening the love for the old country, which 
every colonist still calls by the sweet name of home. 

The study of the trade of British America irre- 
sistibly carries the reader into contemplation of the 
great future which it requires no strong fancy to 
foresee for these colonies. When one sees the gram 
pouring up from the west, down the St. Lawrence, 
the wood and fish from the Lower Provinces, the 
immense mineral wealth of all sorts which is daily 
revealed ; here it may be in coal, there in gold, here 
in iron, there in that daily increasing trade — natural 
oil, or it may be furs from the Hudson's Bay Terri- 
tory and the Far West, it is impossible to help feeling 
that, with an increased population and a stable go- 
vernment, the wealth of this part of our Colonial 
Empire may rival that of the princely Indies, or the 
wonderful Australia. 

And again, when one sees the return vessels laden 



TRADE AXD EDUCATION. 279 

with tlie luxuries of England and France, China and 
India, the fruits of the West Indies, and the manu- 
factures of the Northern States, one would fain 
dream of a brighter day still when British America 
would afford a high, road between the Atlantic and 
the Pacific, and the trade between east and west would 
be immeasurably facilitated. 

But, before this dream can be realised, railway ex- 
tension must be energetically carried on, and must be 
regarded by our colonial governments as a matter of 
political life and death, not as a favourable oppor- 
tunity for successful individual speculation, at the 
cost of their respective provinces. The tales of the 
Grand Trunk and Great Western must not be re- 
peated, nor must we have, as in Nova Scotia, a 
railway of some eighty miles in length producing a 
debt on the colony of a million sterling, at a rate of 
interest so high as six per cent. At present we have 
at work in British America the following lines of 
railway: in Canada, the Grand Trunk, the Great 
Western, and the Northern Kailway of Canada; in 
New Brunswick, the line between St. John and 
Shediac, about one hundred miles long, and the New 
Brunswick and Canada Kailway, open between St. 
Andrew's and Woodstock, as yet ; and in Nova Scotia 
we have the railways between Halifax and Windsor, 
and Halifax and Truro, respectively. All these lines 
are very well as the beginning of a network, but it 
will be well for our colonial politicians to remember 
that it is but the beginning. The traffic is increasing 
on these lines every year, and they are doing good by 
raising the value of the surrounding land ; but, until 
the links are made in this vast iron chain which shall 



280 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

connect its various parts, and establish an uninter- 
rupted communication, the work can only be said to 
have begun. Provincial isolation and a blundering 
neglect to make railways which individually are 
burdens, but would become, as a grand whole, a 
source of revenue and profit, are among the features 
at present most apparent in our British American 
railway system. Nor need the new connecting lines 
be nearly so expensive as the existing ones. Although 
labour is dearer, the land required is cheaper than in 
Great Britain, and in many cases would cost nothing ; 
and there is no reason why, under a jealous supervi- 
sion, the new lines should ■ not be built at the same 
cost as our cheapest Scotch lines, 7000 L per mile. 

In addition to which, the Imperial guarantee which 
has been promised for a new system of intercolonial 
railway would enable money to be borrowed on de- 
benture at a rate little more than half the rate paid 
by provincial bonds unguaranteed. The new lines 
might be worked with the rolling stock of the existing 
companies, and no despicable sources of revenue 
would be immediately found in the mails and the 
constant transport of troops and military stores. 

These things must be, if our American colonies 
wish to prosper. It is well said by one of their own 
journals, "We cannot afford to bear the burden of 
our present incomplete road." The railway system 
among our American brethren in these provinces 
bears the same relation to what it should be, as that 
well-known incomplete edifice on the Calton Hill at 
Edinburgh bears to the Louvre. 

Even dry trade has its picturesque features. Need 
I remind any of my readers who have been in Canada 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 281 

of those striking objects on the St. Lawrence, the 
immense rafts of great value sweeping down to 
Quebec, with the small dwellings and little colonies 
on each, an occasional spruce-tree or flag propped up 
between the huge floating trunks, and the blue smoke 
curling from the small chimney. The value of the 
wood in some of these rafts is something more than 
ordinary people, unacquainted with the trade, would 
believe ; and the wages of the men employed on the 
rafts is proportionally high. On board the steamers 
on the river, or living in such a spot as our miserable 
little island, there were few objects so pleasing to 
watch as these gigantic floating colonies. 

There is a branch of trade in the Lower Provinces 
which has suffered more than perhaps any other by 
the American civil war. In one sense, the sufferers 
in this branch of commerce are equally deserving, and 
in another sense far more deserving, of sympathy 
than even the Lancashire operatives. I allude to the 
fisheries of the Lower Provinces, as affected, first, by 
our idiotic Keciprocity Treaty, and, secondly, by the 
blockade of the Southern ports. The circumstance 
which renders the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland 
fishermen particularly deserving of our sympathy is 
that their present sufferings are due greatly to an un- 
fortunate legislation, while the cotton trade suffers 
from accidental commercial derangements, to which 
any branch of trade is liable as long as war is possible 
on the earth. Probably, to most of my readers the 
very name of the Eeciprocity Treaty is unknown. I 
may be pardoned, therefore, if I introduce a few 
words of explanation. Some years ago the Imperial 
Government (subject, however, I am led to believe, 



282 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

to the approbation of the colonial authorities) entered 
on a treaty with the United States, which was after- 
wards concluded. By its terms the Yankees were 
admitted to equal rights and privileges with ourselves 
in all the fisheries along the shores of our American 
colonies, with liberty to introduce their manufactured 
goods into the respective provinces, free of duty. In 
return for these great privileges all that the British 
colonies received was the right of introducing into the 
United States, free of duty, any raw material they 
might have, and the free use, for sale of fish, &c, of 
the ports of the Southern States. The market for 
salt and dried fish in these States used to be enormous 
in time of peace, this being a staple article of 
food among the slaves. I have been told, also, that 
an amusing privilege conferred on our colonists was 
the free access to Yankee harbours for the purpose of 
procuring shell-fish. This act of grace was hardly 
required by colonies whose own shores swarm, as in 
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and New 
Brunswick, with oysters, lobsters, &c. &c. Since, 
however, the Northern States have enforced a 
blockade of the Southern ports, the chief privilege 
allowed our colonists by this treaty has been done 
away with, while they are still subject to the rivalry 
of the Yankees on then own coasts. The sufferings 
of our fishermen in America can hardly be realised ; 
and certainly it seems but fair that a treaty violated 
— it matters not for what reason — in so important a 
particular, and exclusively to the benefit of one of the 
parties, should be proclaimed null and void. We 
have no idea in England how unpopular this Reci- 
procity Treaty has always been among our maritime 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 

colonies across the Atlantic. Any protest they could 
have made at the time the bargain was concluded 
would have been drowned by the stronger voices of 
Imperial and Canadian policy, Canada proper having 
little to lose in the way of fisheries, and much to gam 
in the matter of a market for raw material. But, 
along the shores of the Lower Provinces Yankee 
smugglers, under the guise of coasting fishermen, 
have done much to injure the provincial revenue, 
already too small to meet the expenditure. As much 
trouble seems likely to arise from this Reciprocity 
Treaty with unscrupulous Jonathan, as has already 
been caused by that similar arrangement with regard 
to the Newfoundland fisheries, into which we entered 
with our more polite, but equally tenacious, neigh- 
bours the French. 

Speaking in a general way, the three things which 
more immediately promise to swell the trade of British 
America to gigantic proportions, are, first, increase of 
population ; second, railway extension ; and, third, the 
opening up of the west and north-west districts. The 
first of these three is apparent to the most superficial 
thinker ; the second has been already alluded to. But 
the third demands a word of explanation. 

The mineral and agricultural wealth of the north- 
ern and western districts of British America is in- 
calculable. That wealth must be secured by settle- 
ments, and the construction of roads, rail or otherwise. 
These districts must be made available as a path to 
those rising colonies, British Columbia and Van- 
couver's Island, instead of remaining a waste desert, 
an inert but effective obstacle between us and them, 
isolating tJiem from our authority, and us from their 



284 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

sympathy. It must be secured, opened up, settled, 
and governed by ourselves, if we would save it from 
falling a rich prize into the hands of the American 
government, more far-seeing in these matters than 
ourselves. Already in the scattered settlements in 
the Far "West, even in the Red Eiver settlement, 
there is a feeling growing up, occasioned by our 
neglect, that they would be better off under an active 
and enterprising government, such as that of the 
States is in all matters of territorial extension, or 
colonization of new districts. Feeling how important 
it is that the Imperial Government should take grand 
questions like this out of the hands of feeble and dis- 
tracted colonial Houses of Assembly, and knowing that 
in such schemes, under proper management, high and 
certain returns are to be got for the superfluous 
capital which is scattering itself in heedless streams 
over Egypt and the continent, into bubble banks and 
hopeless railway legislation ; feeling and knowing this, 
I say, it is impossible to avoid regretting that in our 
days new and contracted theories of our colonial 
duties and privileges are prevailing, theories of which 
Goldwin Smith is the prophet. The more our inte- 
rests and those of our colonies are rendered identical 
by mutual investments, and joint trade, the less 
chance is there of quarrel and separation between 
them and the parent country, and the more likelihood 
of the gradual approach of the time when our colonial 
empire shall display itself in the eyes of the world in 
the wealth and power which nature has intended it to 
possess, while at the same time the strong bonds of 
affection and interest shall be tightened between us 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 285 

and them, instead of falling away, as some imagine, 
altogether. 

At present, the passenger-traffic between onr British 
American colonies and England is divided among the 
Cunarcl line, plying between Halifax and Liverpool — 
the Montreal line between that city and the same 
English port, with a smaller class rmining to Glasgow 
— and the Galway line between St. John's, New- 
foundland, and Galway and Liverpool. The local 
traffic is collected by small lines of steamers, and in 
winter, when the St. Lawrence is frozen, the Mon- 
treal steamers sail from Portland, in the State of 
Maine. 

It seems strange that none of these lines of steamers 
should have selected Pembroke, instead of Liverpool, 
as their English port of call, as one of the most un- 
pleasant parts of the voyage would thus be saved, and 
the annoyance of waiting outside the bar in the Mer- 
sey would be avoided The magnificent harbour and 
docks of Pembroke, with its direct railway communi- 
cation with the metropolis, render it quite equal to 
Liverpool in one respect, while its geographical posi- 
tion renders it infinitely superior. How happy it 
would have been for the unfortunate Royal Charter, 
had Pembroke instead of Liverpool, been its destina- 
tion. 

I wish I were better able to do justice to the ex- 
tended, and daily extending trade of British America. 
The impulse given to the shipping, especially in the 
carrying trade, by the civil war in the States, and the 
increased demand for coal in New York and the. 
New England States from our provincial coal mines, 



286 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

have given a renewed vigour to a commerce, already 
far from despicable. It is to be hoped that this may 
not prove injurious ultimately, by leading the mer- 
chants into speculation and shipbuilding in too great 
a degree for legitimate purposes in ordinary times, 
and so making a collapse certain, with all its ruinous 
concomitants. It would be a noble task for the 
various Colonial Governments to undertake the re- 
gulation of this increasing trade, without hampering 
it, to equalise dues, and to encourage the more legiti- 
mate and beneficial branches in preference to the 
feverish and speculative. 

Let us, however, in despair of doing the subject of 
our colonial trade justice, proceed to say a few words 
on the education of British America. 

It would be easier to write on the educational wants 
of our North American Colonies, than to enumerate 
their many undoubted advantages. For, viewing the 
system at work among them, beside the more perfect 
university system of England, or the admirable parish 
school and college system of Scotland, one is involun- 
tarily reminded of defects instead of merits. That it 
is wrong to adopt contrast instead of examination in 
forming opinions of educational institutions in a 
young country, we must all admit, even while we fall 
into the error we condemn ; so the best manner of 
treating the subject seems to be, first, to devote one- 
self to tracing out the origin of the existing evils, 
and, secondly, to mark the many merits which are to 
be found even in spite of the co-existent defects. 

Pursuing this system, there occurs at once as the 
origin of more defects in the colleges and universities of 
our transatlantic provinces than any other, that crush- 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 287 

ing enemy of progress — poverty. The universities 
are too young to be adequately endowed. They are 
still in all the agony of struggling for existence. 
They are to a great extent dependent on their pupils, 
instead of independent of them. They, at the same 
time, are unable to tempt students with prizes, high 
enough to make literature a profession, or even to 
prolong the curriculum of study for the successful or 
talented a year or two after the unsuccessful student 
has left his alma mater. Nor can they offer sufficient 
remuneration to ensure the services in all their pro- 
fessorial chairs, of men who have a name and posi- 
tion in the social world of literature and science. A 
salary of 200Z. or 300Z. a year will not tempt from 
England or Scotland men whose success at Oxford 
or Cambridge, at Edinburgh or Aberdeen, will render 
probable in their respective countries a career of lite- 
rary or scientific good fortune among a larger com- 
munity, and with more lucrative results. And yet 
this is all the salary which can as a rule be offered by 
the universities of British America. This is a way in 
which poverty in a university serves to injure it. But 
poverty acts also in another way with the same re- 
sult. I allude to the poverty, or at all events the 
absence of great wealth, among the majority of our 
colonists. There is little of the biting penury among 
them, with which we in England are too sadly fami- 
liar, but on the other hand, there is not that affluence 
which exists among so many of our middle and upper 
classes. Comfort there is, and happy homes ; but 
there are few parents who can afford to keep their 
sons at college after the bare curriculum has been 
traversed; few who can encourage a son of literary 



288 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

promise to continue his studies, after the age at 
which other young men are entered upon employments 
and professions which make ^tangible returns for 
labour. Literary pursuits, unless in the legitimate 
course of a learned profession, would be viewed by 
most colonial parents with the same disapprobation, 
as would be produced by idle or dissipated habits. 
The practical, hard view they take of the matter is, 
that just as they themselves have had to work hard 
for their living, so must their sons ; and even if dis- 
posed to admit that study and hard work are often 
enough convertible terms, they hold their ground im- 
movably on the fact that, in the Colonies, study will 
not bring in a living ; literature is a profession which 
doesn't pay. 

For these reasons we will see in all British Ame- 
rican universities that the students are mere boys, 
taking their degrees at an age when they would be 
matriculating at home; and thus not permitting a 
college career to interfere with the profession or trade 
by which they mean to Hve. 

The evil done by this fact is manifest ; the univer- 
sity becomes merely a species of high school, for its 
professors have to bring down their lectures and in- 
structions so as to be within the capacities of the 
youth who fill their halls. 

And although perhaps nowhere is more made of 
the three or four years at college than in America, 
yet there is a limit to the power of the human facul- 
ties, and the whole system in the colleges is more the 
accomplishment of a definite number of tasks, 
crowned by a degree, than the perfect mastering of 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 289 

the grand principles of science, or the beauties and 
intricacies of ancient and modern literature. 

Another evil is the prevalence of a bitter sec- 
tarianism which has a blighting influence on acade- 
mical institutions. In a small community, it does not 
pay to have each denomination insisting on its own 
schools and colleges. The energy, and the means, 
which if united would support a good and liberal 
university, are frittered away among a number of 
mushroom institutions, often lifeless in themselves 
and incapable of imparting proper mental life to 
their students. Let us take an example, and one of 
the most favourable examples for those who may en- 
tertain opposite views from the present writer. I 
take the province of Nova Scotia so often alluded to 
in this work. This colony being poor in point of re- 
venues is unable to give more aid to education, I 
believe, from the public exchequer, than 1,500£. 
Still, as the population of the province is considerably 
under half a million, this sum with aid from private 
endowments would go far to support creditably any 
single provincial university. But what do we find to 
be the fact ? Why, that owing to each denomination 
demanding its own educational institutions, and its 
own share of the Government grant, no one of them 
receives more than a pittance of 250/. a year. Your 
Presbyterian has his Normal college at Truro, your 
Dissenter of another class has his college bells ringing 
at Wolfville, your Eoman Catholic has his institutions 
in the metropolis, while away on the green slopes of 
Windsor, King's College, the Church of England 
University, raises its picturesque and (for a new 

u 



290 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

country) its venerable halls, in a dignified uncon- 
sciousness of the profanum vulgus to which we have 
already alluded. 

Aud lately, as a crowning-point to this academical 
disruption, an university has been re-opened in Hali- 
fax, professing no denominational tenets, and there- 
fore, we presume, intended to catch any waifs and 
strays of the religious world, such as Mormons, or 
Plymouth Brethren, who may not be numerically 
strong enough to attack separately the miserable Go- 
vernment endowment. 

Centralisation, in the higher walks of education, is 
a sine qua nan if any great success is to be expected. 
If the Government and liberal individuals would de- 
vote then energies to the establishment and support 
in each colony of one university alone, the means of 
such being more ample than in the weedy institutions 
too often existing now, would enable the students to 
receive better instruction, and probably much more 
assistance in the way of scholarships, &c, than at 
present, while, at the same time, the value of the de- 
grees would be hnmeasurably raised in the eyes of the 
literary and academical world. Besides which, as 
under such an arrangement the colleges would cease 
to be rivals of the schools, these latter, freed from the 
depression consequent on the present state of affairs, 
would attain a much higher standard of excellence, 
and would render possible a good education for those 
to whom an university career is not necessary, while, 
at the same time, they would send such students as 
desired it to the university, much more advanced than 
they are at present, and ready to enter upon those 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 291 

higher walks of education which at home we associate 
with college life. 

And as prizes of some sort are fully as necessary to 
the students of literature and science as to the devo- 
tee of any other profession or trade, one cannot help 
speculating on the nature of such rewards as would 
be most likely to increase emulation among the stu- 
dents, than which there is no better teacher; and at 
the same time to offer some support during two or 
three years after the receipt of a degree, to encourage 
the further prosecution of study. Of such rewards 
there are several which strike the writer as being sin- 
gularly appropriate for the universities of a young 
country. One is the introduction of some arrange- 
ments by which a distinguished student could, on the 
expiry of his provincial curriculum, procure some 
scholarship at Oxford or Cambridge, or, failing that, 
receive some assistance during a stay at any eminent 
home-universitv, where his talents misbt receive fur- 
ther cultivation and reap higher rewards. Let such 
a reward be given only biennially, or quadrennially, 
as a commencement, and there can be little doubt that 
while conferring great benefits on able students, and 
holding out great inducements to study, such a sys- 
tem would likewise reflect honour upon our colonial 
universities by the success, at the more ancient institu- 
tions, of their sons. 

Another reward which would excite emulation 
would be a high provincial fellowship, given annually 
for competition among the graduates of the different 
colleges, for the year, and which would come to be re- 
garded as the blue riband of literature. If the suc- 
u2 



292 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

cessful competitor were likewise considered to merit 
selection in preference to others, in the conferring of 
any government situation, a still further impetus would 
be given to education. 

At present there are in Canada many universities 
of considerable merit, the most notable of which is 
the University of Toronto, and the second, M'Gill's 
college, Montreal, to the latter of which a good medi- 
cal school is attached. In Toronto there are, in addi- 
tion to the university proper, various excellent deno- 
minational colleges, the best of which is, I believe, 
Queen's College. The Roman Catholic colleges and 
schools, both in Canada and the Lower Provinces, are 
wealthy and well-conducted; two of the most im- 
portant being St. Hilaire and St. Hyacinthe. There 
are, in addition, many places of education attached to 
the different convents, all of which, in Canada, are 
amply supported by the revenues of the church, 
arising from their valuable lands and from extensive 
private charity. 

The New Brunswick University is situated at Fre- 
dericton, but is simply a high school, and far inferior 
to King's College, the chief college of the sister pro- 
vince — Nova Scotia. In this latter colony the school 
system is very inefficient, and the number of people 
who cannot read or write is out of all proportion to 
the population. 

In Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island 
there are, I believe, no colleges. 

With all their disadvantages, the educational insti- 
tutions of our American colonies have many merits. 
The difficulties under which they have been esta- 



TRADE AND EDUCATION. 293 

blished, and amid which they exist, bring out these 
merits in double lustre. The laudable efforts made 
by them all to raise the tone of their pupils' minds, 
and the conscientious manner in which all the duties 
are conducted, hold out a promise of a more brilliant 
future than their present can pretend to be ; and the 
success in the world of many whose whole education 
has been confined to these colonial schools and col- 
leges, augurs well for what future pupils may do un- 
der an improved system, such as must arise as these 
provinces increase in wealth and population. 



294 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

ON THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 

Anomalous as it may seem at first sight, the ex- 
tended frontier of Canada is at once its greatest 
weakness and defence. The former, because no 
possible army or fortification could ward off from 
every point an invading force ; the latter, in that its 
subjugation is not a necessary consequence of even a 
tolerably successful invasion ; for on so large a sur- 
face there is no one point, the loss of which is neces- 
sarily fatal to the colony ; while the temptations to 
an enemy's army to scatter over an extensive territory 
are direct aids to the defending force, and give it an 
opportunity of attacking the enemy's columns in 
detail. 

In considering the defences of Canada, we never 
contemplate any other foe than the United States ; 
just as, in preparing our Southern coast in England 
to resist invasion, we have never dreamt of any other 
enemy than France. Consequently, in alluding to 
the Canadian frontier we mean always the line of 



ON THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 295 

demarcation between it and the Northern States, 
more particularly the States of New York, Vermont, 
New Hampshire, and Maine. We mention these 
States, because it is not probable that an enemy 
would waste its time and energies in an inroad on the 
districts west of the Lakes. The line or frontier to 
be defended commences with a point on the Bay of 
Fundy, on the borders of Maine, and extends along 
the west of New Brunswick, and the south of Lower 
Canada, until it strikes the St. Lawrence about half 
way between Montreal and Kingston. The river is 
here the boundary, and would form the line of defence 
until one reaches Ontario. The neck of land at 
Niagara would require defence, as also the country 
between Lakes Erie and Huron, where we find the 
garrison town of London. It will be unnecessary to 
consider the country farther west for the reason above 
stated, and also because the unsettled districts offer 
sufficient natural obstacles to the movements of troops 
and their impedimenta. 

This frontier, formidable in extent, w T ould exhaust 
an army larger than that of Xerxes, were it necessary 
to defend it at every point. But the war at present 
raging on the American continent, although it has 
given us very few valuable lessons in military matters, 
has taught us that a war of invasion, such as Canada 
might suffer from, resolves itself into the attempt of, 
at the most, two or three large columns of troops to 
penetrate at two or three different places, while, if 
practicable, a fleet supports them by blockading any 
sea-coast which may exist in the invaded country. 
From the latter evil, Canada with its small and un- 
settled sea-board is tolerably safe ; and the blockade 



296 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of the ports of Nova Scotia and New Brans-wick 
would be rendered impossible by the presence of a 
British fleet. The only means of defence which 
Canada need possess, therefore, are those against the 
inroads of any enemy by land ; and there are two for- 
midable ones to be found in the rivers St. Lawrence 
(in Canada), and St. John (in New Brunswick). 

Now, what part would these rivers play in the 
defence of our American colonies? Napoleon, who 
had good opportunites of judging, classed large rivers 
as the third greatest obstacle to any army on the 
march, a desert or moun tarns being alone more diffi- 
cult to overcome. When rivers are parallel to a 
frontier, or identical with it, as is frequently the case 
in British America, it has been laid down by the 
authorities on such matters, that they act as covering 
the frontier and the operations of the defenders on 
it; that the places constructed on their banks will 
aid them ill then- passage, either to penetrate beyond 
them, or to secure a safe retreat across them; that 
fortifications so situated as to draw a natural defence 
from water are difficult to attack, and easy to defend ; 
and have then' defensive properties greatly augmented 
when they can make use of the water to multiply 
obstacles by cuts and ditches. But from what we 
have seen in the American civil war, we would add 
to other means of defending a river frontier the em- 
ployment of gun-boats ; a most important feature in 
modern warfare, and one likely to have a prominent 
part in any campaign, where the depth of the rivers 
will admit of it. Large ocean-steamers ascend the 
St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, and by means of 
the Lachine Canal, good-sized gunboats could ascend 



ON THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 297 

through the whole length of the river to the Lakes. 
This could not be done on the St. John river, much 
above Fredericton, although when the water is high, 
steamers of a small size ascend as far as Woodstock 
and even Grand Falls. 

With these natural lines of defence, it will at once 
be apparent to the reader that they would be the 
bases of a defending army's operations. Unfortu- 
nately, however, in one sense, there is, south of the 
St. Lawrence, a most valuable part of Lower Canada, 
belonging chiefly to French Canadians, which would 
offer a most tempting bait to an invader, and which 
would require to be in some measure protected. 

Any works erected in this district would assist the 
Canadians in their preparations for the defence of 
such a place as Montreal : for the enemy, not daring 
to leave garrisons uncaptured in his rear, would, 
while besieging them, give the defending army in the 
interior more time for maturing their plans; and to 
an invaded country every delay is of incalculable 
value. A short stand at outposts south of the river, 
while reinforcements from the interior were being 
constantly pressed forward, might render a march 
to Montreal as tedious a business as a march to Kich- 
mond. One such fort would be required on Lake 
Champlain, and the line of railway from Montreal to 
this place would enable troops and militia to be moved 
rapidly and with ease. One or two rude forts, to act 
as rendezvous for the defenders, would be advantage- 
ous, more to the east of Lake Champlain, and south 
of Quebec. 

And although there would not be much to tempt 
the invader to make an inroad upon New Brunswick 



298 OUPw GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

on its western boundary, undoubtedly the weakest 
part of the frontier, yet it would be advisable to have 
some accommodation for the massing of the militia 
and volunteers, and some means for defending the 
road, should it be necessary, as at the time of the 
Trent affair, to pass regular troops up from Halifax 
and St. John to Canada. 

We have mentioned the two rivers, St. Lawrence 
and St. John, as important agents in the defence of 
Canada. Perhaps it would be more methodical to 
attempt here some recapitulation of the various exist- 
ing defences, whether natural, artificial, or military. 

There has been a great deal of nonsense talked in 
the English press about the duties of Canada in her 
self-defence, and much bitterness generated between 
the parent country and her American colonies on this 
matter. Some English writers thought it unnatural 
that the Canadians did not turn out en masse at the 
remotest chance of war, leaving their occupation and 
homes before hostilities were imminent. The fact is, 
that there is no lack of volunteers ready, trained, and 
willing to fight ; while the militia are organised, and 
could be got out without difficulty. Indeed, one 
would find on inquiry that the per-centage of volun- 
teers, particularly in the greater sea-ports of the Lower 
Provinces, is equal to, if not greater than that in any 
part of England. 

There may be seen in Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
wick, or any day in the streets of Montreal, as smart 
a body of volunteers as ever trod the Downs at Brigh- 
ton. And wherever the Government have given the 
slightest encouragement the movement has flourished, 
as, for instance, under the fostering care of the Mar- 



OX THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 299 

quis of Normanby, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 
this latter city, also, the militia had during the past 
year to undergo a course of drill — coming out suces- 
sively in battalions — and although doing everything 
in a quiet unobtrusive manner, yet doing their work 
well and thoroughly. In Canada there have been 
started colleges for the training of officers, which may 
perhaps work better than our Musketry School at 
Hythe — an establishment which although it turns out 
good shots does not pretend to make officers. And 
yet this is the only institution, I believe, which opens 
its arms to officers of militia and volunteers at home. 
Although, while smarting under the uncalled for 
criticisms of the English press, the Canadian Parlia- 
ment showed a reluctance to increase their heavy 
national debt by any superfluous or extraordinary 
military expenditure — there is now a very different 
spirit animating the members of the legislature. By 
a majority so great as almost to constitute unanimity, 
many steps were taken some little time ago to free 
Canada from every reproach connected with the per- 
formance of her duties of self-defence; and now, 
inspired alike by the eloquence of such men as D'Arey 
M'Gee and their own inherent patriotism and pluck, 
there is little doubt that the commencement of hostili- 
ties between British America and the States would 
see regiment after regiment of native troops ranging 
themselves side by side with the regular forces, and 
vying with them in deeds of valour. The present 
war in New Zealand seems to me to represent very 
fairly all that can be expected of our colonies in any 
war in which they may be interested ; and in saying so 
I am desirous of being understood to mean that this 



300 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

all is ample for young countries. In New Zealand 
we find volunteers of all ranks in civil life fighting 
side by side for their adopted country, and displaying 
a readiness under discipline which might shame many 
regular troops. 

We find the Colonial Government enlisting with 
liberal bounties in their own and neighbouring 
colonies, voting liberal compassionate allowances for 
the widows and children of the fallen, and at the same 
time showing a childlike confidence in and admiration 
for General Cameron, contrasting greatly with the 
infidelity of the Yankees in their generals, and re- 
minding one more of the Old Guard and Napoleon. 
What more can we ask % What more can even Pro- 
fessor Goldwin Smith demand ? 

A few sentences back we divided the defences of 
Canada into natural, artificial, and military. We 
have mentioned the rivers as among the first, and we 
have also asserted the existence of no mean array of 
the last, independent of the contingent of regular 
troops scattered over the colonies and ready, each regi- 
ment, to act as a nucleus for the volunteer and other 
irregular forces. But we have not exhausted the first 
class of defences, nor alluded to the second, so to 
render our chapter complete it behoves us to attempt 
in some measure to do so. 

And in addition to the rivers and lakes which make 
a natural defence for Canada, it would be a gross 
omission to make no allusion to the long and severe 
winters, which would effectually bar any attempt at 
lengthy campaigning. Were Canada ever likely to 
assume the offensive, of course this same fact would 



ON THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 301 

act against it, but not in our time, nor our children's, 
need we ever contemplate such a possibility. 

The Yankees seem to be a nation who in their wars 
appreciate the comfort and relaxation of winter quar- 
ters. They make war during a season every year, 
but would not see the point of a campaign such as the 
Allies went through in the winter months in the 
Crimea. It is not probable, therefore, that they 
would find a winter campaign in Canada much to 
their liking, and their aggression would be confined to 
summer raids. In this method of warfare our fleet, 
by appearing on the shores of Maine, Massachusetts, 
and New York, might possibly inflict punishment a 
good deal more painful than the offence. 

In addition to the rivers and the climate, we must 
repeat again that the vast territory which would be 
invaded, and the absence of any one point whose loss 
would be fatal, constitute so many direct defences to 
our American colonies. Just as the Southern States 
are unconquered, although the Northern armies may 
garrison New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Corinth, so 
also Canada would not necessarily be subjugated, 
because either Montreal, or Kingston, or Quebec, or 
Toronto had fallen to hostile invaders. Certainly the 
commerce of the country would suffer by the tempo- 
rary loss of any of these cities, but the commerce and 
liberty of a country are not even in these money- 
making days synonymous terms. 

But leaving these natural defences to the considera- 
tion of the reader, let me look at what may be termed 
the artificial means of protection. They are in one 
sense many — in another sense few. If we consider 



302 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

merely the fortifications with their armaments, we 
have a pitiful catalogue to run through. But if we 
add — 'as modern warfare seems to demand — railways, 
canals, high-roads, and those scattered Martello towers 
which serve as mementoes of the Canadian rebellion, 
we find the fist increased to no despicable proportions. 
One is unwilling at first to believe that Quebec 
with its bristling tiers of guns is about as dangerous 
as a skull with its grinning row of helpless teeth ; nor 
is one comfortable on first examining Montreal and 
finding it perfectly defenceless save in the one ma- 
terial point of its insular position. But then, remem- 
bering that there are no lack of field-batteries, regular 
and militia in Canada, one thinks with complacency 
of the many railroads, the abundance of shipping for 
transports, and such institutions — as the Yankees 
say — as the Bideau Canal. Could some antidote be 
erected to that unpleasant northern fortress at 
Bouse' s Point, and a small Ute-du-pont at the Vic- 
toria Bridge, one could feel tolerably easy about 
Montreal, save in the matter of bombarding, for the 
river is wide, rapid, and shallow at the greater part 
opposite this, the military and commercial capital of 
Canada, and the crossing of hostile troops would be a 
matter of very serious difficulty. For the defence of 
the lake cities, the gunboats which would probably be 
pushed up the river would in a great degree be re- 
sponsible, although the small existing defences might 
be enlarged also to take part in any proceedings. 
Fortunately the great cities of Canada are on the 
north bank of the St. Lawrence, and rude defences 
might easily be hurriedly constructed in the event of an 



ON THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 303 

attack being imminent. To such simple fortifications 
the river would be a valuable assistance. 

The other fortifications in Canada, such as those of 
Quebec, contain ample stores of munitions of war, 
which could be distributed over the country at the 
first rumour of invasion. The old towers and block- 
houses could be repaired, and might act as efficient 
supports to defending columns. 

But there are fortifications in an invaded country- 
other than bastioned fronts, and there is an arma- 
ment oftentimes more powerful than guns. It is no 
clap-trap to say, after studying the histories of inva- 
sions in either hemisphere, that the mere unarmed 
force of an united people is as strong as a rampart, 
and the unanimity of an invaded nation more deadly 
than shot or steel. Was it before the armed hosts of 
Russia, or the strength of the people's hatred and 
self-denial, that Napoleon led back, in inglorious re- 
treat, the army that had started so proudly on its 
march to Moscow? And how else could the South 
in its weakness, have so long defied the North, with 
its teeming columns and its brimming treasury ? Or, 
coming to our own side of the Atlantic, and glancing at 
the war begun so foully the other day, must we not feel 
certain that, had the civilian inhabitants of Schleswig 
and Holstein been sincere in their allegiance to Den- 
mark, the advance of the Austro-Prussian army would 
have been greatly hindered, the Dannewerk might 
not have been yielded without a blow, and a few days 
would not have seen the gallant Danes cooped up in 
Duppel and Alsen. 

With such examples, and knowing the unanimity 



304 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of our American colonists in their detestation of the 
Yankees, it requires no great power of divination to 
foretel that the invaders would have to encounter not 
merely the few scattered forts and hurried levies, but 
all the bitterness of a sensitive people's anger, and all 
the obstacles which arise before an army traversing 
a totally unsympathising country. The conduct and 
language of British North America since the com- 
mencement of the civil war in the States, have amazed 
the Yankees, who, with ineffable conceit before their 
troubles began, believed that Canada was disaffected 
under the light yoke of Britain, and was pining to 
add another star to their own preposterous banner. 
But it has been their fate to see all the ties of affec- 
tion and interest which should bind us to our colonies, 
strengthening and consolidating day by day ; to see 
democracy shown up in all its essential deformity; 
and in their own distress and disruption to pay, by 
the contrast, the highest compliment to the form of 
government under which England and her colonies 
live. 

As we are not writing about the defences of a city, 
or a position, but of a large country, it is impossible 
to enter into minute details, nor would it be advisable. 
The necessity of strengthening such places as Quebec, 
Kingston, Niagara, and London, will be apparent to 
the most superficial student of the map ; and one has 
only to be informed of the exertions being made by 
the American Government at Eouse's Point and 
Buffalo, to feel that our own military and colonial 
authorities should make some proportionate efforts to 
discomfit these in event of war. 

But the great point after all in a country which, 



OX THE DEFENCES OF CANADA. 305 

like Canada, is sealed up half the year, is the keeping 
up some means of communication between the main 
colony and the sea, through the harbours of the lower 
provinces, which are never closed for navigation. The 
expenditure on places like Halifax and St. John, 
would, in a long campaign, prove more useful to the 
cities of Canada than many a powerful fortress. For 
it is by these harbours that assistance would come in 
winter from England ; by these that the troops would 
arrive which should attack the enemy in the rear, and 
raise the sieges of the Canadian cities. And still 
more important, perhaps, it is in these harbours that 
the fleets would muster which should act on the coast 
of New England, and distract the government of the 
invaders. 

For the reasons here stated, and many more besides, 
should the Canadian Government show no jealousy 
of the advantages which might more immediately 
accrue to the Lower Provinces by the realisation of 
the intercolonial railroad project, but support it earn- 
estly and liberally ; for, truly, the day may come when 
it might be cheap to Canada, even if its rails were 
made of gold. 

To these very general sentiments upon Canadian 
defences, the author thinks it advisable here to allude 
to a subject of indirectly military importance in our 
colonies across the Atlantic. The great defect on 
service of all irregular and hurriedly-levied troops, is 
their want of discipline. Many things, as we all 
know, enter into the system of training, which results 
in tins necessary qualification of the soldier ; but 
there is one of great and primary importance, as im- 
portant as obedience itself, and that is organisation. 
x 



306 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

The habit of acting under leaders, and in concert, in 
whatever duty of life, is a good lesson for those who 
may have to act some day as soldiers. It is this fact 
which invests with value certain organised bodies in 
.our American colonies, whose original object never 
was military service. We allude to the numerous 
fire companies and brigades which exist in great per- 
fection in all transatlantic cities. 

Fostered by the enjoyment of certain political immu- 
nities, and also by a wholesome and keen rivalry, these 
fire companies have attained a pitch of high order, 
discipline, and importance, which amazes us on first 
becoming acquainted with them. In cities mostly 
built of wood, it is unnecessary to say that fires are 
frequent, and rapid in the way they spread; but 
whatever hour of the night, or however low the ther- 
mometers may stand, the echo of the fire-bell is al- 
most instantly followed by the rumble of the engines, 
the mustering of axe and fire companies, all like so 
many veteran regiments, preparing to encounter a 
dangerous, but familiar foe. The habits engendered 
by this mode of life are the very ones most valuable 
to the soldier ; promptitude in action, coolness under 
difficulties, and readiness under command. In event 
of an invasion of British America, the numerous fire 
brigades, whether united in large masses, or carrying 
into the ranks of the militia and volunteers, as indi- 
viduals, their sense and habits of discipline, would 
play no unimportant part in the defences of Canada. 



307 



CHAPTER XVII. 



GAEEISON IX THE WEST. 

Forgive them what they have committed here, 
And let them be recalled from their exile. 

Shakspeare. 

We came down from Montreal to Quebec on the 
last day of September, 1862, in a river steamboat, and 
a torrent of rain. We left about 6 p.m., and our 
passage occupied about twelve liours. There was 
little novel or interesting, no startling improvement 
in the feeding, no additional comfort in the beds. 
There were a good many other passengers on board, 
the majority of whom, especially of the female part, 
seemed to consider the British soldier a very awful 
and uncertain being. This unhappy and calumniated 
individual, as represented in some hundred and twenty 
gunners, spent the night in a confused manner, doing 
a good deal more in the way of tobacco than of con- 
versation. In fact, our residence in our miserable 
little island had taken all the cheerfulness out of us, 
and as there was a difficulty about getting artificial 
spirits on board, the men remained more pensive and 
x2 



308 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

thoughtful than they usually do on an occasion of 
arrival or departure. I could not avoid a little reflec- 
tion myself, however, although I hope not so confused 
as that of the gunners, when my memory carried me 
back some six years to the time we left the old 
country, to whose shores we were now returning. 
There was a great change in the ranks of the old 
battery: during these six years death, disease, and 
intemperance had done their fell work, and the vacant 
places had been filled by new and younger faces. 
And the old, familiar lot, remembered since the long- 
ago days in quiet stations and bustling garrisons in 
England, through weary days at sea, and long winters 
on shore, through all the changes of station, climate, 
and season, in our garrisons in the west, even they 
were not the same I once knew. For soldiers age 
very rapidly, the long exposure in inclement weather, 
and the monotony of their daily duties, seem to tell on 
them quite as much as more active and perceptible 
hardships. Young faces had got fixed and lined in 
these years, and older faces had got wrinkled and 
careworn, and most of all had this change come in the 
long, dreary days spent in that our saddest garrison, 
our miserable little island. Hearts were not so young, 
nor voices so clear and ready now, as in the day six 
years ago, when we made the dull wharves by the 
muddy Thames echo with our parting cheers; our 
emotions, although now fully as keen as of old, lay 
deeper in our breasts, and found not so easy expres- 
sion. And yet each in his own rough way was 
thinking much the same thought, dreaming of that 
home country in the east which, with all its draw- 
backs, is good enough for us yet awhile. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 309 

We were early astir on the morning succeeding our 
departure from Montreal, and as we rounded the man- 
of-war, which was to convey us home at last, many 
anxious and criticising eyes viewed it eagerly. We 
were tumbled out on the wharf at Quebec, with the 
heartlessness which generally characterises steamers 
disgorging their passengers, as if they were glad to be 
rid of them, which there is no earthly reason to doubt 
that they are. Having been judiciously left in the 
rain some hour or two until we were thoroughly wet, 
with the pleasure of seeing our baggage thrown about 
by the amphibious wharf attendants as if there could 
by no possibility be any danger of breakages, we were 
at length put on board a tender for conveyance on 
board H.M.S. Megcera, our intended home for some 
three weeks or so. We had not been many minutes 
on board ere we recognised in the preparation for our 
reception the decided superiority of a man-of-war 
over a merchant transport ; neatness and discipline 
going in the former hand-in-hand, while in the latter 
discipline is an accident, and neatness an afterthought. 
Although it was barely half -past eight, we all felt as 
if we had been up for weeks. Breakfast was soon 
ready, and no sooner ready than it disappeared, and 
then commenced the interesting operation of making 
the most of the few feet of accommodation which are 
granted to the British officer of the sister service by 
the Lords of the Admiralty, for privacy and repose 
during a voyage. As we were not crowded on board 
the Megcera on this occasion, we had not much cause 
for complaint, but, generally speaking, the naval 
authorities ignore the possibility of a passenger being 
more than 5 ft. 9 in. in height. I heard a good story 



310 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of an officer of Marines being sent on a cruise, whose 
height was about 6ft. 4 in. 

A special report had to be made of the case, and 
the result was that, an opening having been made 
into the next cabin, a small box or recess was con- 
structed under the berth of its occupant, in which 
Goliath might dispose of his excessive proportions. 
Unfortunately, the proprietor of the cabin thus in- 
vaded was of a litigious disposition, and protested that 
his privacy was disturbed by the presence of another's 
feet, demanding at the same time to be put in posses- 
sion of his regulation allowance of space and air. 
How the difference ended I cannot say, but as the 
standard of the Marines is not lowered, it is to be 
hoped that they put the long gentleman on shore 
again, rather than perform amputation of Ins super- 
fluous inches. 

Our start was good, but deceptive ; for just as we 
had commenced to talk hopefully of our passage, and 
make wonderful predictions of fair winds and clear 
weather, the wind chopped round, and, while still in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we found ourselves steam- 
ing against wind and a nasty sea. 

As the Megcera cannot carry coal for the transit of 
the Atlantic, it was intended at first to call at Sydney, 
Cape Breton, for a fresh supply, to carry us on our 
homeward voyage. Contrary winds, however, induced 
our captain to make for St. John's, Newfoundland, 
instead, and thus I was enabled to add another to my 
list of our garrisons in the west. The fogs on the 
coast of Newfoundland are well known, and on this 
occasion we had a severe experience of then* density 
and continuance. As the shore near St. John's is 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 311 

very rugged and dangerous, our position when feeling 
for the harbour was naturally anxious; however, 
having a good captain, and an experienced master, we 
made St. John's on the afternoon of the Sunday fol- 
lowing our departure from Quebec. 

I had been prepared to find the entrance to the har- 
bour very picturesque ; partly from hearsay, and 
partly from a sketch of it which appeared in the 
Illustrated London News at the time of the Prince of 
Wales's visit to America. This sketch seemed to me 
at the time as rather "sensation" and probably 
somewhat exaggerated, but since I have seen it, I am 
prepared wholly to endorse it. It is indeed bold, 
wild, and rugged ; and capable of being made almost 
impregnable as a harbour. There are already bat- 
teries at its mouth, and were these a little stronger, 
the narrow entrance of the harbour would be rather a 
warm and dangerous, indeed a wholly impracticable 
passage. The harbour extends inland a considerable 
distance, and, as you steam up, you find the town of 
St. John's on your right, well sheltered from the sea, 
and sloping upwards, rather steeply, from the water's 
edge. 

We fired two or three guns, announcing our ar- 
rival, while the public were engaged with afternoon 
service, and, I am afraid, by awakening curiosity in 
the congregational bosom, we spoiled the perorations 
of a good many sermons. As soon as church was out, 
the people came pouring down, each Paterfamilias at 
the head of the quiver, whose barbed arrows act as a 
certain antidote to any soporific ideas of which the 
parson may be guilty. We were soon occupied in an 
engagement of cross questioning, such as is familiar to 



312 OUR GARRISONS IX THE WEST. 

any one whose fortune has led him into any out of 
the way harbour. 

Sunday though it was, we were obliged to keep all 
hands at work taking coal on board ; for the wind 
had now become fair, and every day on board the 
Megcera that we could dispense with the screw, and 
trust to our canvas, was of importance. We had, 
however, the whole of Monday to do the city, and 
the result of my experience is as follows. That, 
firstly, no town of my experience more perfectly 
comes up to the Shakspearian idea of " an ancient and 
fish-like smell!" secondly, that it is advisable not to 
change any money in the town, unless you have a 
fancy for carrying about on the contents of your purse 
an incrustation of the scales of fish in various stages 
of decomposition ; thirdly, that it is a very good pre- 
caution to land in a cheerful humour, and rather exu- 
berant spirits, as the depression consequent on a visit 
to St. John's is so fearful, as to make one think of 
Kingston as a jovial place in comparison, and its in- 
habitants a set of giddy Merry Andrews ; and lastly, 
that having once got into St. John's, the earliest pos- 
sible opportunity of leaving it should be eagerly 
snatched at. 

St. John's is a place of mild and unimpressive ap- 
pearance, built chiefly of wooden houses on the side of 
a hill which is surmounted by a swaggering Roman 
Catholic church. The chief employment of the in- 
habitants is fish hauling, varied with fish curing, and 
a noisome way of extracting seal oil by putrefaction ; 
their general appearance and smell is hearty, but un- 
mistakably fishy. Such of the inhabitants as are not 
engaged directly in this trade, are so indirectly, by 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 313 

supplying the fishermen with the necessaries, and, in 
a good season, with the luxuries of life. I do not 
know whether there is any sympathy between politics 
and fish ; but in Newfoundland, the people are as bitter 
in the pursuit of the former, as they are energetic in 
the capture of the latter. There are a great many 
Irish in the province, which may account for the 
strong resemblance there between an election and 
Donnybrook Fair in the olden times. Religion, I am 
sorry to say, figures prominently in the political riots, 
the first question put to a candidate being — not " Are 
you Tory or Radical % " but " Are you Protestant or 
Catholic % " In St. John's, and Harbour Grace, the 
contest is always very keen, and the interference of 
the troops has often been required to check bloodshed. 
Fortunately, the present Governor, Sir Alexander 
Bannerman, is not a man to stand any nonsense ; and, 
if the inhabitants persisted in showing themselves 
incapable of self-government, would not hesitate to 
place them under martial law. His great rival is the 
Roman Catholic bishop, who, having both spiritual 
and temporal power over his subjects, is, it must be 
owned, rather formidable. As yet, however, he has 
been playing a losing game ; and were our government 
to act in our colonies with the same firmness that they 
have displayed in certain burghs at home, which 
have shown themselves unworthy of representation, 
either the bishop would be suspended from his func- 
tions, or the boon (?) of self-government would be 
recalled from Newfoundland. 

The garrison of St. John's has consisted chiefly as 
yet of a local corps, on the same principle as the Ca- 
nadian Rifles, and known as the Newfoundland Com- 



314 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

parties. In addition, there has, until within the last 
few years, always been a battery of Garrison Artil- 
lery ; and, since the Trent affair, this useful adjunct 
has been again added to the defensive force of the 
island. Under a recent arrangement, the Newfound- 
land Companies have been amalgamated with the 
Canadian Rifles, and will be periodically relieved. 
The advantages of this are manifold ; and among the 
most important is the one affecting the discipline and 
esprit de corps of the troops concerned. For it is an 
undoubted fact, that familiarity and close relation- 
ship should not exist between the regular troops of 
a town and the inhabitants; long residence among, 
and intermarriage with, the civilians having a ten- 
dency to unfit the troops for the stern and unpleasant 
duties which they are very often called on to per- 
form. 

Further than that St. John's is a cheap station, 
and that the inhabitants are extremely hospitable, 
there is little to say in favour of it as a garrison. 
There is, however, in the province an abundance of 
sport, which, to most military men, more than com- 
pensates for all other drawbacks; and there is, in 
addition, all the temptation to travel which exists in 
a country not wholly explored, and not deficient in 
natural beauty. The deer in Newfoundland are very 
abundant, and the most delicious grouse are to be 
found in abundance, even within a few miles of St 
John's. I need hardly say that there was no chari- 
ness displayed in the way we added these charming 
birds to the contents of our larder, on board the good 
ship Megcera. 

There was, and I believe still is, a very consider- 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 315 

able trade between Newfoundland and Portugal. In 
return for the dried fish sent from the former country, 
the Portuguese, who have an objection to parting with 
specie, sent large quantities of pure port wine. The 
fame of this wine soon became general, and many a 
pipe of it found its way to our other garrisons in the 
west. But of late years the quality of the wine has 
become yery inferior, and although in the merchants' 
private cellars in St. John's, you will find port of a 
quality to make your hair curl, yet any you purchase 
in the market, although better than Cape, is not fit 
for much else than " mulling." 

On the Tuesday we sailed from St. John's, our 
last bit of land in America, and the last we were to 
see until we made Land's End. In keeping with our 
regimental motto, " Ubique," the last we saw of our 
kind were some gunners in a dreary battery at the 
entrance of the harbour, who cheered us as heartily 
as some of the same dear old corps who welcomed us 
six years before in Halifax. 

The day was dull and threatening; the wind was 
fresh, and the sea running pretty high. About a 
mile after leaying the harbour, while we were all 
standing on the quarter-deck as well as the rolling of 
the vessel would permit, we suddenly saw a dark body 
fall from the main-top, and, striking the bulwarks of 
the ship with a dull, cruel noise, glance off them into 
the sea. In a moment the cry of " a man overboard," 
revealed to us what it was, and the noise on board was 
deafening. The master, running to the stern, touched 
the small handle by which the patent life-buoy is 
loosened, and down it fell instantly into the water. At 
the same time the ship was put aback ; and the crew of 



316 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

volunteers under the gunner leaped into the starboard 
life-boat, and were lowered away. So quickly were 
we moving, however, that by this time we were a good 
half mile from the buoy, on which to our delight and 
amazement we saw the man clinging. We thought 
the fall would have stunned him ; and when we looked 
on the indentation made on the bulwarks by the 
weight of his body falling, it seemed next to a miracle 
that he was not killed before touching the water. 
Although the crew in the life-boat pulled heartily, 
yet it seemed to us, who were watching, a cruel time 
ere they reached the unhappy figure, clinging cold and 
shivering to the buoy, for the thermometer was very 
low, and the very look of the water made one shudder. 
At last he was picked off, and ere long he was handed 
on board. He was a mere boy, and the tears were 
pouring down his blue, pinched face, as his wet figure 
was carried below. Poor fellow ! on examining him 
the surgeon found two ribs, and his arm broken, and 
several other severe contusions. It was wonderful 
that he succeeded in swimming the distance he did, to 
reach the buoy : the instinct of self-preservation must 
have deadened all feeling of pain. 

We had miserably cheerless weather the whole way 
across ; head-winds generally, and frequently rain 
and actual storms. Our employments and amuse- 
ments even were tinged by the dulness of the sky 
and sea ; and there was rarely any of the merriment 
which is found in a long voyage after the public has 
succeeded in finding its sea-legs. The nights on this 
voyage were our roughest season, and almost inva- 
riably were all hands turned up to assist on deck ; for 
on board men-of-war transports the crew is never 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 317 

large enough to do all the work of the ship, as the 
troops are supposed to bear a hand when required. 

One dark, stormy night death boarded us silently, 
and, avoiding the old and the ripe among us, con- 
tented himself with reminding us of his earthly omni- 
presence by touching with his bony hand a young 
infant of a few months' age. Death is more melan- 
choly and suggestive at sea than on shore, and our 
little community all felt the sad loss of this poor 
mother's pet as if it had been their own. 

Next morning, at an early hour, while the wind 
was buffeting us, and the hungry waves were leaping 
up to the deck, as if grudging us a few moments' 
prayer over then damty morsel, we were all standing 
bare-headed round a solemn group ; the captain read- 
ing the impressive service for the dead who die at 
sea, the mother raying her heart out, and the quiet 
little coffin containing the remains of the child of so 
many hopes and cares — this was a picture not to be 
forgotten, even when far away from the tossing ship 
and the eager, gluttonous sea. And in a minute more 
the helpless little burden is dropped over the side, and 
for a few moments yet we can see the shell of u our 
dear little sister departed" floating on the waves, ere 
they bury it out of sight, until the day when no storm 
nor hurricane shall drown the sound of the dead- 
awakening trump ! 

"With the exception of these incidents, our three 
weeks between St. John's and Portsmouth were mo- 
notonous in the extreme. At last we were warned of 
our near approach to England, and the chief excite- 
ment for a day or two was the noon observation of 
our position. A storm in the Channel threw us out 



318 OUR GARRISONS IN THE WEST. 

of our course a little, and we came to Portsmouth 
round the south of the Isle of Wight, after being a 
good deal nearer the Channel Islands than we had 
intended. Never could I have believed that there 
could have been in landscape all the sweet expression 
and suggestive beauty which we read in the green 
fields and clean-looking dwellings on the Isle of 
Wight. Anchoring at Spithead, we awaited instruc- 
tions as to our landing-place. Orders arrived at last 
to proceed round to Woolwich, but as our crew were 
worn out by the unusual exertions of the preceding 
two or three days, we remained all night at our 
anchorage, and the lately bustling deck was left to 
the solitary quartermaster on duty. Our steward, 
however, brought off fresh provisions and news- 
papers to us ; and, really, a weary voyage is almost 
atoned for by the pleasure of getting to shore again — 
just as convalescence almost compensates for sickness. 
Early next morning we started for Woolwich, and 
came in for the full force of the celebrated gale in 
the end of October, 1862. We were compelled to 
anchor in the Downs, and as we lay there, with two 
anchors out and steam up, we landsmen had an oppor- 
tunity of judging of the force with which wind can 
blow. Little did we dream then that for miles around 
us that wild night vessels were going down at their 
anchors, and many a strong man finding a choking 
death ; while on shore, from j)ale faces and breaking 
hearts, were agonised prayers rising for the dear ones 
" that go down to the sea in ships, and do their busi- 
ness on the great waters." 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 319 

At last, we are again steaming past the dull wharves 
in the muddy Thames, and once more rises the many- 
roofed Arsenal before us. As we land on the dear 
shores of our birth again, the past six years seem to us 
like a dream, and can hardly be realised. But life itself 
is but a dream, and we but idle dreamers. Truly, this 
is not our abiding place for ever, and in the coming 
days of an endless life' we shall look back on this era 
in our existence as a tale that is told. Heaven grant 
that it shall not be a tale bringing remorse alone to 
our souls, and that all its bitterness may be taken 
away by the joy which dwells in those who harp upon 
their harps in the presence of God and the Lamb, 
who live for ever and ever ! 



THE END. 



C. WHIT1XG, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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